TrAivsactioi\y0usijvess 


ARTHUR  HELPS 


HowTo  Wia  Fortune 

ANDREW  CARNEGIE- 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


I 


The  Transaction  of  Business 


How  to  Win  Fortune 


A  little  consideration  of  what  takes  place 
around  us  every  day  would  show  us  that  a 
higher  law  than  that  of  our  will  regulates 
events;  that  our  painful  labors  are  unnec- 
essary and  fruitless;  that  only  in  our  easy, 
simple,  spontaneous  actions  are  we  strong. 
— EMERSON. 


The  Transaction  of  Business 


SIR  ARTHUR  HELPS 


How  to  Win  Fortune 

ANDREW  CARNEGIE 


Edited  by 
DAVID  E.   GOE 


{    UNIVERSITY    ij 

Of 


CHICAGO 
FORBES  &  COMPANY 

i  9°7 


COPYRIGHT,    1903,    BY 
DAVID  E.  GOE 

COPYRIGHT,   1904,   BY 
EDDY  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

COPYRIGHT,    1907,   BY 

FORBES   &  COMPANY 


Contents 

PAGE 

EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION xm 

THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS 19 

CHOICE  AND  MANAGEMENT  OF  AGENTS 27 

INTERVIEWS 33 

THE  TREATMENT  OF  SUITORS 41 

COUNCILS  AND  COMMISSIONS 47 

THE  VALUE  OF  COUNSEL 52 

ADVICE 57 

SECRECY 65 

PRACTICAL  WISDOM 71 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  A  MAN  OF  BUSINESS 77 

OUR  JUDGMENTS  OF  OTHER  MEN 87 

How  TO  WIN  FORTUNE 97 

TACTFUL  RELATIONS  WITH  CUSTOMERS 117 

THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  AUDITS 131 

ANALYZING  A  BUSINESS  PROPOSITION 139 

DISPATCH 147 

DELAYS .    .  149 

EXPENSE 150 

CUNNING 152 

GET  OUT,  OR  GET  IN  LINE 159 


1 G4099 


Acknowledgment  is  due  to  MR.  FORREST  CRISSEY  for 
the  loan  of  a  rare  copy  of  an  anonymous  edition  of 
Helps'  Essays. 

To  THE  NEW  YORK  TRIBUNE  for  permission  to  repub- 
lish  Mr.  Carnegie's  article,  'How  to  Win  Fortune.' 

To  MR.  C.  A.  BROCKAWAY  for  the  loan,  from  his  pri- 
vate collection,  of  Mr.  Carnegie's  autograph  and  photo- 
graph. 

To  the  COSMOPOLITAN  MAGAZINE  for  permission  to  use 
Mr.  Hubbard's  article,  'Get  Out,  or  Get  in  Line.' 

To  the  editor  of  SYSTEM  for  permission  to  reprint  the 
excellent  articles  by  Mr.  W.  T.  Fenton,  and  Mr.  John 
Farson,  and  also  to  the  gentlemen  themselves  for  cour- 
teously revising  and  correcting. 

To  MR.  JOHN  W.  FERGUSON  for  his  most  timely  and 
helpful  discussion  of '  Tactful  Relations  with  Customers. ' 


Editor's  Introduction 


IN  offering  this  volume  of  essays  on  business  to  the 
merchants  and  manufacturers  of  the  United  States, 
the  editor  feels  assured  that  it  cannot  fail  to  be  appre- 
ciated by  these  intelligent  and  thinking  men.  The 
lessons  of  these  practical  papers,  and  the  sound  business 
principles  which  they  serve  to  emphasize,  appeal  equally 
to  the  banker,  merchant,  and  manufacturer,  or  the  busi- 
ness man  of  any  other  class. 

The  fact  that  there  is  a  distinct  literature  of  business 
is  too  little  appreciated.  Perhaps,  as  a  class,  we  have 
been  bending  over  the  counter  and  the  cost-sheet  too 
diligently  to  see  the  finer  fibers  of  our  work ;  we  have  re- 
garded business  with  a  sordid  and  mercenary  affection. 
'In  the  intervals  of  business '  it  has  been  the  editor's 
pleasant  fortune  to  have  his  attention  directed  to  some 
of  the  literary  lore  of  business.  The  discovery  of  l Helps' 
Essays,'  bristling  with  scintillant,  crisp,  straight- from- 
the-shoulder  business  common  sense  was  a  delightful 
revelation.  And  certainly  there  are  a  few  thousand 
other  men,  immersed  in  the  details  of  business,  who  will 
read  them  with  an  equally  keen  relish  of  their  wit,  wis- 
dom, and  intensely  practical  advice  and  directions. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  more  fully  introduce  Mr. 
Helps.  He  was  the  youngest  son  of  Thomas  Helps,  and 
was  born  July  10,  1813.  His  father  was  then,  and  for 


XIV  EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION. 

many  years  afterwards,  the  head  of  a  large  mercantile 
house  in  London.  Arthur  Helps  received  his  education 
at  Eton  and  at  Trinity  College.  Soon  after  leaving  the 
University,  where  he  made  many  and  lasting  friends,  he 
became  Private  Secretary  to  Mr.  Spring  [Rice,  afterwards 
Lord  Monteagle,  then  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 
This  office  he  filled  until  he  went  to  Ireland  as  the  Pri- 
vate Secretary  of  Lord  Morpeth,  then  Chief  Secretary  of 
State  for  Ireland.  In  these  positions  of  responsibility 
he  established  such  a  reputation  for  ability,  tact,  and  dis- 
cretion, that  when  the  clerkship  of  the  Privy  Council  be- 
came vacant  in  1860,  he  was  unanimously  selected  for 
the  position.  The  work  in  this  new  capacity  brought 
him  into  intimate  friendship  with  the  Queen,  who  very 
soon  learned  to  greatly  appreciate  his  powers  of  mind, 
his  intuition  and  discernment,  his  skill  in  the  analysis 
of  character,  and  his  masterful  grasp  of  business  exigen- 
cies. He  was  made  a  C.  B.  in  1871,  and  K.  C.  B.  in  the 
following  year. 

Helps  was  a  careful,  consistent  student  of  the  cause 
and  effect  in  all  that  came  under  his  observation,  and  he 
counsels  with  a  strength,  clearness  and  directness  which 
leaves  little  of  doubt  or  uncertainty  in  the  mind  of  the 
reader.  The  articles  selected  for  this  book  are  taken 
from  his  ' '  Essays  Written  in  the  Intervals  of  Business. ' ' 

Of  introduction  for  Andrew  Carnegie,  there  is  certain- 
ly very  little  need.  His  achievements  are  known  the  world 
over  and  what  he  has  to  say  bears  the  hall-mark  of  ster- 
ling quality.  When  any  man,  beginning  life  a  poor  boy, 
succeeds,  in  the  course  of  manufacturing  and  merchan- 
dising, in  building  up  a  fortune  of  over  two  hundred 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION.  XV 

and  fifty  million  dollars,  it  certainly  is  of  interest  to 
other  toilers  after  wealth,  to  learn  something  of  the  prin- 
ciples ;  something  of  the  secrets  of  his  methods.  And  it 
is  exceedingly  fortunate  that  this  man  of  great  expe- 
rience, of  deep,  practical  knowledge,  has  the  happy  fac- 
ulty of  being  able  to  impart  his  wisdom  to  others;  and 
having  the  faculty,  is  also  possessed  of  a  generous- 
minded  willingness  to  point  the  way  of  success  to  all 
who  would  tread  the  golden  road. 

His  article  "How  to  Win  Fortune'7  is  a  notable  and 
valuable  contribution  to  the  literature  of  business  and 
is  at  the  same  time  a  wonderful  mine  of  facts  and  prin- 
ciples governing  what  is  to  many,  if  not  all,  the  gist  of 
business. 

It  is  an  especial  pleasure  to  have  the  privilege  of  in- 
cluding in  this  book  articles  by  John  Farson,  W.  T. 
Fenton  and  John  W.  Ferguson.  These  Chicago  busi- 
ness men  plainly  evidence  that  their  knowledge,  in  gen- 
eral and  in  detail,  is  the  result  of  personal  effort  and 
experience  in  large  affairs.  They  tell  of  practical  things 
in  a  practical  manner.  Each  deals  with  a  subject  most 
intimately  vital  to  the  success  of  business  enterprises. 
He  who  would  build  broadly  and  safely  must  know,  at 
all  times,  the  state  of  his  business ;  must  keenly  sift  the 
varying  matters  claiming  his  attention;  and  must,  most 
surely,  cultivate  in  spirit  and  in  fact,  'tactful  relations 
with  customers/  The  three  articles,  Mr.  Farson 's  'Im- 
portance of  Audits';  Mr.  Fenton 's  'Analyzing  a  Busi- 
ness Proposition';  and  Mr.  Ferguson's  'Tactful  Rela- 
tions with  Customers'  are  earnestly  commended  to  the 
careful,  thoughtful  perusal  of  business  men. 


XVI  EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION. 

The  four  essays  of  Francis  Bacon  will  certainly  be  of 
value  and  interest.  Bacon  exhibits  a  profound  knowl- 
edge and  an  incisive  analysis  of  human  nature.  He  was 
a  brilliant,  cool,  and  skilful  lawyer;  a  member  of  Par- 
liament; and  a  favorite  of  the  great  Lord  Essex.  His 
mental  endowments  won  rapid  advancement  for  him  to 
positions  of  trust  and  power.  In  1601  he  was  Queen's 
Counsel.  In  1607  King  James  made  him  Solicitor  Gen- 
eral. In  1613  he  was  appointed  Attorney  General;  in 
1618  Lord  Chancellor. 

We  cannot  do  better  than  quote  Helps'  estimate  of 
Bacon  where  he  says,  'His  lucid  order,  his  grasp  of  the 
subject,  the  comprehensiveness  of  his  views,  his  knowl- 
edge of  mankind,  the  greatest  perhaps  that  has  been 
distinctly  given  out  by  any  uninspired  man;  the  prac- 
tical nature  of  his  purposes,  render  Bacon's  works  un- 
rivaled in  their  fitness  to  form  the  best  men  for  the 
conduct  of  the  highest  affairs.  His  essays  penetrate  to 
the  heart  of  many  a  close-thicketed  matter,  hewing  with 
short,  trenchant  strokes,  like  those  of  a  Roman  sword. ' 

The  article  by  Elbert  Hubbard  is  included  because  of 
its  evident  aptness  to  the  purpose  of  this  book.  It  will 
be  enjoyed  by  the  veterans  of  business,  and  ought  to 
profit  the  young  men  who  have  not  yet  won  their  spurs. 

DAVID  E.  GOE. 
Madison,  Wis. 


The  Transaction  of  Business 


Get  the  thing  done.  The  tag  ends  of  un- 
finished business  are  time-consumers.  They 
drag  on.  They  multiply.  They  take  ten 
minutes  to  do,  if  they  are  done  today;  two 
hours,  if  they  are  done  tomorrow. 

Get  the  thing  done.  That  is  system.  Sys- 
tem stands  at  the  door  and  denies  admit- 
tance to  every  interrupting  detail.  System 
sees  that  every  facility  is  ut  hand — at  the 
finger's  end.  System  keeps  things  away 
from  you  until  you  are  ready  for  them. 

When,  by  no  fault  of  yours,  a  thing  goes 
wrong,  it  is  a  symptom  that  there  is  a  lack 
of  system.  Sit  down  then  and  there  and  de- 
vise a  system  which  will  insure  you  that 
that  particular  thing  will  never  again  go 
wrong.  Don't  wait  till  tomorrow  to  devise 
the  system.  Get  the  thing  done. 

There  is  satisfaction  and  success  in  a  fin- 
ished article.  There  is  danger  and  delay  in 
even  an  unfinished  detail.  Proceed  calmly, 
forcefully,  quickly,  but  not  hurriedly.  Get 
the  thing  done. — SYSTEM. 


O,    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


The  Transaction  of  Business 


TTHIS  subject  may  be  divided  into  two  parts.    1.  Deal- 
ing with  others  about  business.     2.  Dealing  with 
the  business  itself. 

1.   DEALING  WITH  OTHERS  ABOUT  BUSINESS. 

The  first  part  of  the  general  subject  embraces  the 
choice  and  management  of  agents,  the  transaction  of 
business  by  means  of  interviews,  the  choice  of  colleagues, 
and  the  use  of  councils.  Each  of  these  topics  will  be 
treated  separately.  There  remain,  however,  certain 
general  rules  with  respect  to  our  dealings  with  others 
which  may  naturally  find  a  place  here. 

In  your  converse  with  the  world  avoid  anything  like 
a  juggling  dexterity.  The  proper  use  of  dexterity  is  to 
prevent  your  being  circumvented  by  the  cunning  of  oth- 
ers. It  should  not  be  aggressive. 

Concessions  and  compromises  form  a  large  and  very 
important  part  of  our  dealings  with  others.  Concessions 
must  generally  be  looked  upon  as  distinct  defeats;  and 
you  must  expect  no  gratitude  for  them.  I  am  far  from 
saying  that  it  may  not  be  wise  to  make  concessions,  but 
this  will  be  done  more  wisely  when  you  understand  the 
nature  of  them. 


20  THE  TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

In  making  compromises,  do  not  think  to  gain  much  by 
concealing  your  views  and  wishes.  You  are  as  likely  to 
suffer  from  its  not  being  known  how  to  please  or  satisfy 
you,  as  from  any  attempt  to  overreach  you,  grounded  on 
a  knowledge  of  your  wishes. 

Delay  is  in  some  instances  to  be  adopted  advisedly. 
It  sometimes  brings  a  person  to  reason  when  nothing  else 
could.  When  his  mind  is  so  occupied  with  one  idea,  that 
he  completely  over-estimates  its  relative  importance,  he 
can  hardly  be  brought  to  look  at  the  subject  calmly  by 
any  force  of  reasoning.  For  this  disease  time  is  the  only 
doctor. 

A  good  man  of  business  is  very  watchful,  over  both 
himself  and  others,  to  prevent  things  from  being  carried 
against  his  sense  of  right  in  moments  of  lassitude.  After 
a  matter  has  been  much  discussed,  whether  to  the  pur- 
pose or  not,  there  comes  a  time  when  all  parties  are  anx- 
ious that  it  should  be  settled;  and  there  is  then  some 
danger  of  the  handiest  way  of  getting  rid  of  the  matter 
being  taken  for  the  best. 

It  is  often  worth  while  to  bestow  much  pains  in  gain- 
ing over  foolish  people  to  your  way  of  thinking :  and  you 
should  do  it  soon.  Your  reasons  will  always  have  some 
weight  with  the  wise.  But  if  at  first  you  omit  to  put 
your  arguments  before  the  foolish,  they  will  form  their 
prejudices ;  and  a  fool  is  often  very  consistent,  and  very 
fond  of  repetition.  He  will  be  repeating  his  folly  in  sea- 
son and  out  of  season,  until  at  last  it  has  a  hearing ;  and 
it  is  hard  if  it  does  not  sometimes  chime  in  with  external 
circumstances. 


THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS.  21 


A  man  of  business  should  take  care  to  consult  occa- 
sionally with  persons  of  a  nature  quite  different  from  his 
own.  To  very  few  are  given  all  the  qualities  requisite 
to  form  a  good  man  of  business.  Thus  a  man  may  have 
the  sternness  and  the  fixedness  of  purpose  so  necessary 
in  the  conduct  of  affairs,  yet  these  qualities  prevent  him, 
perhaps,  from  entering  into  the  characters  of  those  about 
him.  He  is  likely  to  want  tact.  He  will  be  unprepared 
for  the  extent  of  versatility  and  vacillation  in  other  men. 
But  these  defects  and  oversights  might  be  remedied  by 
consulting  with  persons  whom  he  knows  to  be  possessed 
of  the  qualities  supplementary  to  his  own.  Men  of  much 
depth  of  mind  can  bear  a  great  deal  of  counsel;  for  it 
does  not  easily  deface  their  own  character,  nor  render 
their  purposes  indistinct. 

2.    DEALING  WITH  THE  BUSINESS  ITSELF. 

The  first  thing  to  be  considered  in  this  division  of  the 
subject  is  the  collection  and  arrangement  of  your  mate- 
rials. Do  not  fail  to  begin  with  the  earliest  history  of 
the  matter  under  consideration.  Be  careful  not  to  give 
way  to  any  particular  theory,  while  you  are  merely  col- 
lecting materials,  lest  it  should  influence  you  in  the 
choice  of  them.  You  must  work  for  yourself;  for  what 
you  reject  may  be  as  important  for  you  to  have  seen  and 
thought  about,  as  what  you  adopt;  besides,  it  gives  you 
a  command  of  the  subject,  and  a  comparative  fearless- 
ness of  surprise,  which  you  will  never  have  if  you  rely 
on  other  people  for  your  materials.  In  some  cases,  how- 
ever, you  may  save  time  by  not  labouring  much,  before- 
hand, at  parts  of  the  subject  which  are  nearly  sure  to  be 
worked  out  in  discussion. 


22  THE   TRANSACTION   OP   BUSINESS. 

When  you  have  collected  and  arranged  your  informa- 
tion, there  comes  the  task  of  deciding  upon  it.  To  make 
this  less  difficult  you  must  use  method,  and  practice 
economy  in  thinking.  You  must  not  weary  yourself  by 
considering  the  same  thing  in  the  same  way;  just  oscil- 
lating over  it,  as  it  were ;  seldom  making  much  progress, 
and  not  marking  the  little  that  you  have  made.  You 
must  not  lose  your  attention  in  reveries  about  the  sub- 
ject, but  must  bring  yourself  to  the  point  by  such  ques- 
tions as  these:  Y\7hat  has  been  done!  What  is  the  state 
of  the  case  at  present  ?  What  can  be  done  next  ?  What 
ought  to  be  done?  Express  in  writing  the  answers  to 
your  questions.  Use  the  pen — there  is  no  magic  in  it, 
but  it  prevents  the  mind  from  staggering  about.  It 
forces  you  to  methodize  your  thoughts.  It  enables  you 
to  survey  the  matter  with  a  less  tired  eye.  Whereas  in 
thinking  vaguely,  you  not  only  lose  time,  but  you  acquire 
a  familiarity  with  the  husk  of  the  subject,  which  is  ab- 
solutely injurious.  Your  apprehension  becomes  dull; 
you  establish  associations  of  ideas  which  occur  again  and 
again  to  distract  your  attention;  and  you  become  more 
tired  than  if  you  had  really  been  employed  in  mastering 
the  subject. 

When  you  have  arrived  at  your  decision,  you  have  to 
consider  how  you  shall  convey  it.  In  doing  this,  be  sure 
that  you  very  rarely,  if  ever,  say  anything  which  is  not 
immediately  relevant  to  the  subject.  Beware  of  indulg- 
ing in  maxims,  in  abstract  propositions,  or  in  anything 
of  that  kind.  Let  your  subject  fill  the  whole  of  what 
you  say.  Human  affairs  are  so  wide,  subtle,  and  com- 
plicated that  the  most  sagacious  man  had  better  content 
himself  with  pronouncing  upon  those  points  alone  upon 
which  his  decision  is  called  for. 


THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS.  23 

It  will  often  be  a  nice  question  whether  or  not  to  state 
the  motives  for  your  decisions.  Much  will  depend  upon 
the  nature  of  the  subject,  upon  the  party  whom  you  have 
to  address,  and  upon  your  power  of  speaking  out  the 
whole  truth.  When  you  can  give  all  your  motives,  it 
will  in  most  cases  be  just  to  others,  and  eventually  good 
for  yourself,  to  do  so.  If  you  can  only  state  some  of 
them,  then  you  must  consider  whether  they  are  likely  to 
mislead,  or  whether  they  tend  to  the  full  truth.  And 
for  your  own  sake  there  is  this  to  be  considered  in  giving 
only  a  part  of  your  reasons :  that  those  which  you  give 
are  generally  taken  to  be  the  whole,  or  at  any  rate,  the 
best  that  you  have.  And,  hereafter,  you  may  find  your- 
self precluded  from  using  an  argument  which  turns  out 
to  be  a  very  sound  one,  which  had  great  weight  with  you, 
but  which  you  were  at  the  time  unwilling,  or  did  not 
think  it  necessary,  to  put  forward. 

When  you  have  to  communicate  the  motives  for  an 
unfavorable  decision,  you  will  naturally  study  how  to 
convey  them  so  as  to  give  the  least  pain,  and  to  insure 
least  discussion.  These  are  not  unworthy  objects;  but 
they  are  immediate  ones,  and  therefore  likely  to  have 
their  full  weight  with  you.  Beware  that  your  anxiety  to 
attain  them  does  not  carry  you  into  an  implied  false- 
hood; for,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  evil  is  latent  in  that. 
Each  day's  converse  with  the  world  ought  to  confirm  us 
in  the  maxim  that  a  bold  but  not  unkind  sincerity  should 
be  the  groundwork  of  all  our  dealings. 

It  will  often  be  necessary  to  make  a  general  statement 
respecting  the  history  of  some  business.  It  should  be 
lucid,  yet  not  overburdened  with  details.  It  must  have 


24  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

method  not  merely  running  through  it,  but  visible  upon 
it — it  must  have  method  in  its  form.  You  must  build 
it  up,  beginning  at  the  beginning,  giving  each  part  its 
due  weight,  and  not  hurrying  over  those  steps  which 
happen  to  be  peculiarly  familiar  to  yourself.  You  must 
thoroughly  enter  into  the  ignorance  of  others,  and  so 
avoid  forestalling  your  conclusions.  The  best  teachers 
are  those  who  can  seem  to  forget  what  they  know  full 
well;  who  work  out  results,  which  have  become  axioms 
in  their  minds,  with  all  the  interest  of  a  beginner,  and 
with  footsteps  no  longer  than  his. 

It  is  a  good  practice  to  draw  up,  and  put  on  record,  an 
abstract  of  the  reasons  upon  which  you  have  come  to  a 
decision  on  any  complicated  subject;  so  that  if  it  is  re- 
ferred to,  there  is  but  little  labour  in  making  yourself 
master  of  it  again.  Of  course  this  practice  will  be  more 
or  less  necessary,  according  as  your  decision  has  been 
conveyed  with  a  reserved  or  with  a  full  statement  of  the 
reasons  upon  which  it  was  grounded. 

Of  all  the  correspondence  you  receive,  a  concise  record 
should  be  kept ;  which  should  also  contain  a  note  of  what 
was  done  upon  any  letter,  and  of  where  it  was  sent  to,  or 
put  away.  Documents  relating  to  the  same  subject 
should  be  carefully  brought  together.  You  should  en- 
deavor to  establish  such  a  system  of  arranging  your 
papers,  as  may  insure  their  being  readily  referred  to, 
and  yet  not  require  too  much  time  and  attention  to  be 
carried  into  daily  practice.  Fac-similes  should  be  kept 
of  all  the  letters  which  you  send  out. 

These  seem  little  things:  and  so  they  are,  unless  you 
neglect  them. 


The  Choice  and  Management  of  Agents 


In  the  choice  of  instruments,  it  is  better 
to  choose  men  of  a  plainer  sort,  that  are 
like  to  do  what  is  committed  to  them,  and  to 
report  back  again  faithfully  the  success, 
than  those  who  are  cunning  to  contrive  out 
of  other  men's  business  somewhat  to  grace 
themselves,  and  will  help  the  matter  in  re- 
port for  satisfaction  sake.  Also  use  such 
persons  as  affect  the  business  wherein  they 
are  employed;  for  that  quickeneth  much; 
and  such  as  are  fit  for  the  matter;  as  bold 
men  for  expostulation,  fair-spoken  men  for 
persuasion,  crafty  men  for  inquiry  and  ob- 
servation. Use  also  such  as  have  been  lucky 
and  prevailed  before  in  things  wherein  you 
have  employed  them;  for  that  breeds  confi- 
dence, and  they  will  strive  to  maintain  this 
precedent. — BACON. 


The  Choice  and  Management 
of  Agents 


TTHE  choice  of  agents  is  a  difficult  matter,  but  any 
labour  that  you  may  bestow  upon  it  is  likely  to  be 
well  repaid ;  for  you  have  to  choose  persons  for  whose 
faults  you  are  to  be  punished;  to  whom  you  are  to  be 
the  whipping-boy.' 

In  the  choice  of  an  agent,  it  is  not  sufficient  to  ascer- 
tain what  a  man  knows,  or  to  make  a  catalogue  of  his 
qualities:  but  you  have  to  find  out  how  he  will  perform 
a  particular  service.  You  may  be  right  in  concluding 
that  such  an  office  requires  certain  qualities,  and  you 
may  discern  that  such  a  man  possesses  most  of  them;  and 
in  the  absence  of  any  means  of  making  a  closer  trial,  you 
may  ha\v  done  the  best  that  you  could  do.  But  some 
deficiency,  or  some  untoward  combination  of  these  quali- 
tirs,  may  unfit  him  for  the  office.  Hence  the  value  of 
any  opportunity,  however  slight,  of  observing  his  con- 
duct in  matters  similar  to  those  for  which  you  want  him. 

Our  previous  knowledge  of  men  will  sometimes  mis- 
lead us  entirely,  even  when  we  apply  it  to  circumstances 
but  little  different,  as  we  think,  from  those  in  which  we 
have  actually  observed  their  behaviour.  For  instance, 
you  might  naturally  imagine  that  a  man  who  shows  an 


28  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

irritable  temper  in  his  conversation,  is  likely  to  show  a 
similar  temper  throughout  the  conduct  of  his  business. 
But  experience  does  not  confirm  this ;  for  you  will  often 
find  that  men  who  are  intemperate  in  speech  are  cautious 
in  writing. 

The  best  agents  are,  in  general,  to  be  found  amongst 
those  persons  who  have  a  strong  sense  of  responsibility. 
Under  this  feeling  a  man  will  be  likely  to  grudge  no 
pains ;  he  will  pay  attention  to  minute  things ;  and  what 
is  of  much  importance,  he  will  prefer  being  considered 
ever  so  stupid,  rather  than  pretend  to  understand  his 
orders  before  he  does  so. 

You  should  behave  to  your  subordinate  agents  in 
such  a  manner  that  they  would  not  be  afraid  to  be  frank 
with  you.  They  should  be  able  to  comment  freely  upon 
your  directions,  and  may  thus  become  your  best  counsel- 
ors. For  those  who  are  intrusted  with  the  execution  of 
any  work  are  likely  to  see  things  which  have  been  over- 
looked by  the  person  who  designed  it,  however  sagacious 
he  may  be. 

You  must  not  interfere  unnecessarily  with  your 
agents,  as  it  gives  them  the  habit  of  leaning  too  much 
upon  you.  Sir  Walter  Scott  says  of  Canning,  'I  fear  he 
works  himself  too  hard,  under  the  great  error  of  trying 
to  do  too  much  with  his  own  hand,  and  to  see  everything 
with  his  own  eyes.  Whereas  the  greatest  general  and 
the  first  statesman  must,  in  many  cases,  be  content  to 
use  the  eyes  and  fingers  of  others,  and  hold  themselves 
contented  with  the  exercise  of  the  greatest  care  in  the 
choice  of  implements. '  Most  men  of  vigorous  minds  and 
nice  perceptions  will  be  apt  to  interfere  too  much;  but 


CHOICE   AND   MANAGEMENT   OF  AGENTS.          29 

it  should  always  be  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  a  person 
in  authority  to  train  up  those  around  him  to  do  without 
him.  He  should  try  to  give  them  some  self-reliance.  It 
should  be  his  aim  to  create  a  standard  as  to  the  way  in 
which  things  are  to  be  done— not  to  do  them  all  himself. 
That  standard  is  likely  to  be  maintained  for  some  time, 
in  case  of  his  absence,  illness,  or  death;  and  it  will  be 
applied  daily  to  many  things  that  must  be  done  without 
a  careful  inspection  on  his  part,  even  when  he  is  in  full 
vigour. 


With  respect  to  those  agents  whom  you  employ  to 
represent  you,  your  inclination  should  be  to  treat  them 
with  hearty  confidence.  In  justice  to  them,  as  well  as 
for  your  own  sake,  the  limits  which  you  lay  down  for 
their  guidance  should  be  precise.  Within  those  limits 
you  should  allow  them  a  large  discretionary  power.  You 
must  be  careful  not  to  blame  your  agent  for  departing 
from  your  orders,  when  in  fact  the  discrepancy  which 
you  notice  is  nothing  more  than  the  usual  difference  in 
the  ways  in  which  different  men  set  about  the  same 
object,  even  when  they  employ  similar  means  for  its 
accomplishment.  For  a  difference  of  this  kind  you 
should  have  been  prepared.  But  if  you  are  in  haste  to 
blame  your  representative,  your  captiousness  may  throw 
a  great  burden  upon  him  unnecessarily.  It  is  not  the 
success  of  the  undertaking  only  that  he  will  thencefor- 
ward be  intent  upon :  he  will  be  anxious  that  each  step 
should  be  done  exactly  after  your  fancy.  And  this  may 
embarrass  him,  render  him  indecisive,  and  lead  to  his 
failing  altogether. 


^\^V 


UNIVERSITY  j 


30  THE   TRANSACTION   OF   BUSINESS. 

The  surest  way  to  make  agents  do  their  work  is  to 
show  them  that  their  efforts  are  appreciated  with  nicety. 
For  this  purpose,  you  should  not  only  be  careful  in 
your  promotions  and  rewards :  but  in  your  daily  dealings 
with  them,  you  should  beware  of  making  slight  or  hap- 
hazard criticisms  on  any  of  their  proceedings.  Your^ 
praise  should  not  only  be  right  in  the  substance,  but  put 
upon  the  right  foundation ;  it  should  point  to  their  most 
strenuous  and  most  judicious  exertion.  I  do  not  mean 
that  it  should  always  be  given  at  the  time  of  those  ex- 
ertions being  made,  but  it  should  show  that  they  had  not 
passed  by  unnoticed. 


Interviews 


It  is  generally  better  to  deal  by  speech 
than  by  letter;  or  by  the  mediation  of  a 
third  person  than  by  one's  self.  Letters  are 
good  when  a  man  would  draw  an  answer  by 
letter;  or  when  it  may  serve  for  a  man's  jus- 
tification afterwards  to  produce  his  own  let- 
ter; or  where  it  may  be  danger  to  be  inter- 
rupted, or  heard  by  pieces.  To  deal  in 
person  is  good,  when  a  man's  face  breedeth 
regard,  as  commonly  with  inferiors;  or  in 
cases  where  a  man's  eye  upon  him  with 
whom  he  speaketh  may  give  him  intuition 
how  far  to  go. 

If  you  would  work  any  man,  you  must 
either  know  his  nature  and  habits,  and  so 
lead  him;  or  his  aims,  and  so  persuade  him; 
or  his  weakness  and  disadvantages,  and  so 
awe  him;  or  those  that  have  interest  in  him, 
and  so  govern  him.  In  dealing  with  cun- 
ning persons,  we  must  ever  consider  their 
ends,  to  interpret  their  speeches;  and  it  is 
good  to  say  little  to  them,  and  that  which 
they  least  look  for. — BACON. 


Interviews 


HP  HERE  is  much  that  cannot  be  done  without  inter- 
views. It  would  often  require  great  labour,  not 
only  on  your  part,  but  also  on  the  part  of  others  whom 
you  cannot  command,  to  effect  by  means  of  writing  what 
may  easily  be  accomplished  in  a  single  interview.  The 
pen  may  be  a  surer,  but  the  tongue  is  a  nicer  instru- 
ment. In  talking,  most  men  sooner  or  later  show  what 
is  uppermost  in  their  minds;  and  this  gives  a  peculiar 
interest  to  verbal  communications.  Besides,  there  are 
looks,  and  tones,  and  gestures  which  form  a  significant 
language  of  their  own.  In  short,  interviews  may  be 
made  very  useful;  but  many  people  look  upon  them 
rather  as  the  pastime  of  business  than  as  a  part  of  it  re- 
quiring great  discretion;  however,  they  are,  in  general, 
somewhat  hazardous  things. 

Interviews  are  perhaps  of  most  value  when  they  bring 
together  several  conflicting  interests  or  opinions,  each 
of  which  has  thus  an  opportunity  of  ascertaining  the 
amount  and  variety  of  opposition  which  it  must  expect, 
and  so  is  worn  into  moderation.  It  would  take  a  great 
deal  of  writing  to  effect  this. 

Interviews  are  to  be  resorted  to  when  you  wish  to 
prevent  the  other  party  from  pledging  himself  upon  a 
matter  which  requires  much  explanation;  when  you  see 
3 


34  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

what  will  probably  be  his  answer  to  your  first  proposi- 
tion, and  know  that  you  have  a  good  rejoinder,  which 
you  would  wish  him  to  Hear  before  he  commits  himself 
by  writing  upon  the  subject.  In  cases  of  this  kind,  how- 
ever, there  is  the  similar  danger  of  a  man  talking  him- 
self into  obstinacy  before  he  has  heard  all  that  you  have 
to  say. 

Interviews  are  very  serviceable  in  those  matters  where 
you  would  at  once  be  able  to  come  to  a  decision,  if  you 
did  but  know  the  real  inclination  of  the  other  parties 
concerned:  and,  in  general,  you  should  take  care  occa- 
sionally to  see  those  with  whom  you  are  dealing,  if  the 
thing  in  question  is  likely  to  be  much  influenced  by  their 
individual  peculiarities,  and  you  require  a  knowledge  of 
the  men.  Now  this  is  the  case  with  the  greatest  part  of 
human  affairs. 

You  frequently  want  verbal  communication  in  order 
to  encourage  the  timid,  to  settle  the  undecided,  and  to 
bring  on  some  definite  stage  in  the  proceedings. 

The  above  are  instances  in  which  interviews  are  to  be 
sought  for  on  their  own  account ;  but  they  are  sometimes 
necessary,  merely  because  people  will  not  be  satisfied 
without  them.  There  are  persons  who  can  hardly  be- 
lieve that  their  arguments  have  been  attended  to,  until 
they  have  had  verbal  evidence  of  the  fact.  They  think 
that  they  could  easily  answer  all  your  objections,  and 
that  they  should  certainly  succeed  in  persuading  you,  if 
they  had  an  opportunity  of  discussing  the  matter  orally ; 
and  it  may  be  of  importance  to  remove  this  delusion  by 
an  interview. 

On  the  other  hand  interviews  are  to  be  avoided,  when 
you  have  reasons  which  determine  your  mind,  but  which 


INTERVIEWS.  35 

you  cannot  give  to  the  other  party.  If  you  do  accede  to 
an  interview,  you  are  almost  certain  to  be  tempted  into 
giving  some  reasons,  and  these  not  being  the  strong 
ones,  will  very  likely  admit  of  a  fair  answer;  and  so, 
after  much  shuffling,  you  will  be  obliged  to  resort  to  an 
appearance  of  mere  wilfulness  at  last. 

You  should  also  be  averse  to  transacting  business 
verbally  with  very  eager,  sanguine  persons,  unless  you 
feel  that  you  have  sufficient  force  and  readiness  for  it. 
There  are  people  who  do  not  understand  any  dissent  or 
opposition  on  your  part,  unless  it  is  made  very  manifest. 
They  are  fully  prepossessed  by  their  own  views,  and 
they  go  on  talking  as  if  you  agreed  with  them.  Perhaps 
you  feel  a  delicacy  in  interrupting  them,  and  undeceiv- 
ing them  at  once.  The  time  for  so  doing  passes  by ;  and 
ever  afterwards  they  quote  you  as  an  authority  for  all 
their  folly.  Or  it  ends  by  your  going  away  pledged  to 
a  course  of  conduct  which  is  anything  but  what  you 
approve. 

But  perhaps  there  are  no  interviews  less  to  be  sought 
after  than  those  in  which  you  have  to  appear  in  connec- 
tion with  one  or  two  other  parties  who  have  exactly  the 
same  interest  in  the  matter  as  your  own,  and  must  be 
supposed  to  speak  your  sentiments,  but  with  whom  you 
have  had  little  or  no  previous  communication ;  or  whose 
judgment  you  find  that  you  cannot  rely  upon.  In  such 
a  case  you  are  continually  in  danger  of  being  compro- 
mised by  the  indiscretion  of  any  one  of  your  associates. 
For  you  do  not  like  to  disown  one  of  your  own  side 
before  the  adverse  party ;  or  you  are  afraid  of  taking  all 
the  odium  of  opposition  on  yourself.  You  may  perhaps 
be  quite  certain  that  your  indiscreet  ally  would  be  as 


36  THE   TRANSACTION   OF   BUSINESS. 

anxious  as  yourself  to  recall  his  words  if  he  could  per- 
ceive their  consequences :  but  these  are  things  which  you 
cannot  explain  to  him  in  that  company. 

The  men  who  profit  least  by  interviews  are  often  those 
who  are  most  inclined  to  resort  to  them.  They  are 
irresolute  persons,  who  wish  to  avoid  pledging  them- 
selves to  anything,  and  so  they  choose  an  interview  as 
the  safest  course  which  occurs  to  them.  Besides  it  looks 
like  progress:  and  makes  them,  as  they  say,  see  their 
way.  Such  persons,  however,  are  very  soon  entangled 
in  their  own  words,  or  they^  are  oppressed  by  the  earnest 
opinions  of  the  people  they  meet.  For  to  conduct  an 
interview  in  the  manner  which  they  intend,  would  re- 
quire them  to  have  at  command  that  courage  and 
decision  which  they  never  attain,  without  a  long  and 
miserly  weighing  of  consequences. 

Indolent  persons  are  very  apt  to  resort  to  interviews ; 
for  it  saves  them  the  trouble  of  thinking  steadily,  and 
of  expressing  themselves  with  precision/  which  they  are 
called  upon  to  do,  if  they  come  to  write  about  the  sub- 
ject. Now  they  certainly  may  learn  a  great  deal  in  a 
short  time,  and  with  very  little  trouble,  by  means  of  an 
interview ;  but  if  they  have  to  take  up  the  position  of  an 
antagonist,  of  a  judge,  or  indeed  any  but  that  of  a 
learner,  then  it  is  very  unsafe  to  indulge  in  an  interview, 
without  having  prepared  themselves  for  it. 

To  conduct  an  interview  successfully,  requires  not 
only  information  and  force  of  character,  but  also  a  cer- 
tain intellectual  readiness.  People  are  so  apt  to  think 
that  there  are  but  two  ways  in  which  a  thing  can  termi- 
nate. They  are  ignorant  of  the  number  of  combinations 


INTERVIEWS.  37 

which  even  a  few  circumstances  will  admit  of.  And 
perhaps  a  proposal  is  made  which  they  are  totally  un- 
prepared for,  and  which  they  cannot  deal  with,  from 
being  unable  to  apprehend  with  sufficient  quickness  its 
main  drift  and  consequences. 

There  are  cases  where  the  persons  meeting  are  upon 
no  terms  of  equality  respecting  the  interview ;  where  one 
of  them  has  a  great  deal  to  maintain,  and  the  other 
nothing  to  lose.  Such  an  instance  occurs  in  the  case  of 
a  minister  receiving  a  deputation.  He  has  the  interests 
of  the  public  to  maintain,  and  the  intentions  of  the 
Government  to  keep  concealed.  He  has  to  show  that  he 
fully  understands  the  arguments  laid  before  him;  and 
all  the  while  to  conceal  his  own  bias,  and  to  keep  him- 
self perfectly  free  from  any  pledge.  Any  member  of 
the  deputation  may  utter  anything  that  he  pleases  with- 
out much  harm  coming  of  it;  but  every  word  that  the 
minister  says  is  liable  to  be  interpreted  against  him  to 
the  uttermost.  There  are  similar  occasions  in  private 
life,  where  a  man  has  to  act  upon  the  defensive,  and 
where  the  interview  may  be  considered  not  as  a  battle, 
but  as  a  seige.  A  man  should  then  confine  himself  to  a 
few  words.  He  should  bring  forward  his  strongest 
arguments  only,  and  not  state  too  many  of  them  at  a 
time:  for  he  should  keep  a  good  force  in  reserve.  Be- 
sides, it  will  be  much  more  difficult  for  the  other  party 
to  mystify  and  pervert  a  few  arguments  than  a  set 
speech.  And  he  will  leave  them  no  room  for  gaining  a 
semblance  of  victory  by  answering  the  unimportant 
parts  of  his  statement. 

Again,  whatever  readiness  and  knowledge  of  the  sub- 
ject he  may  possess,  he  should  have  somebody  by  him 


38  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

on  his  side.  For  he  is  opposed  to  numbers,  and  must 
expect  that  amongst  them  there  will  always  be  some  one 
ready  to  meet  his  arguments,  if  not  with  argument,  at 
any  rate  with  the  proper  fallacies ;  or  at  least  that  there 
will  be  some  one  stupid  enough  to  commence  replying 
without  an  answer.  He  should  therefore  have  a  person 
who  would  be  able  to  aid  him  in  replying ;  and  there  will 
be  a  satisfaction  in  having  somebody  in  the  room  who  is 
not  in  hostile  position  towards  him.  Besides  he  will 
want  a  witness :  for  he  must  not  imagine  that  the  number 
of  his  opponents  is  any  safeguard  against  misrepresenta- 
tion, but  rather  a  cause,  in  most  people,  of  less  attention, 
and  less  feeling  of  responsibility.  And  lastly,  the  most 
precise  man  in  the  world,  if  he  speaks  much  on  any 
matter,  may  be  glad  to  hear  what  was  the  impression 
upon  another  person 's  mind:  in  short,  to  see  whether  he 
conveyed  exactly  what  he  meant  to  convey. 

The  best  precaution,  however,  which  any  man  can 
take  under  these  circumstances,  is  to  state  in  writing,  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  interview,  the  substance  of  what 
he  apprehends  to  have  been  said,  and  of  what  he  intends 
to  do.  This  would  require  great  readiness  and  the  most 
earnest  attention;  but,  in  the  end,  it  would  save  very 
much  trouble  and  misapprehension.  A  similar  practice 
might  be  adopted  in  most  interviews  of  business,  where 
the  subject  would  warrant  such  a  formality.  It  would 
not  only  be  good  in  itself,  but  its  influence  would  be  felt 
throughout  the  interview;  and  people  would  come  pre- 
pared, and  would  speak  with  precision,  when  there  was 
an  immediate  prospect  of  their  statements  being  re- 
corded. 


The  Treatment  of  Suitors 


In  speech,  the  man  who  makes  Truth  his 
watchword  is  careful  in  his  words,  he  seeks 
to  be  accurate,  neither  understating  nor 
overcoloring.  He  never  states  as  a  fact 
that  of  which  he  is  not  sure.  What  he  says 
has  the  ring  of  sincerity,  the  hall-mark  of 
pure  gold. 

Men  who  split  hairs  with  their  conscience, 
who  mislead  others  by  deft,  shrewd  phras- 
ing which  may  be  true  in  letter  yet  lying  in 
spirit  and  designedly  uttered  to  produce  a 
false  impression,  are  untruthful  in  the  most 
cowardly  way.  Such  men  would  cheat  even 
in  solitaire.  Like  murderers  they  forgive 
themselves  their  crime  in  congratulating 
themselves  on  the  cleverness  of  their  alibi. — 
JORDAN. 


The  Treatment  of  Suitors 


THE  maxim,  'Pars  beneficii  est,  quod  petitur  si  bene 
neges/*  is  misinterpreted  by  many  people.  They 
construe  'bene'  kindly,  which  is  right;  but  they  are  in- 
clined to  fancy  that  this  kindness  consists  in  courtesy, 
rather  than  in  explicitness  and  truth. 

You  should  be  very  loth  to  encourage  expectations  in 
a  suitor,  which  you  have  not  then  the  power  of  fulfilling, 
or  of  putting  in  a  course  of  fulfilment;— for  Hope,  an 
architect  above  rules,  can  build,  in  reverse,  a  pyramid 
upon  a  point.  From  a  very  little  origin  there  often 
arises  a  wildness  of  expectation  which  quite  astounds 
you.  Like  the  Fisherman  in  the  'Arabian  Nights/ 
when  you  see  'a  genie  twice  as  high  as  the  greatest  of 
giants/  you  may  well  wonder  how  he  could  have  come 
out  of  so  small  a  vessel;  but  in  your  case,  there  will  be 
no  chance  of  persuading  the  monster  to  ensconce  himself 
again,  for  the  purpose  of  convincing  you  that  such  a  feat 
is  not  impossible. 

In  addition  also  to  the  natural  delusions  of  hope,  there 
is  sometimes  the  artifice  of  pretending  to  take  your 
words  for  more  than  they  are  well  known  to  mean. 

There  is  a  deafness  peculiar  to  suitors :  they  should 
therefore  be  answered  as  much  as  possible  in  writing. 

*You  partly  grant  a  favor  when  you  refuse  it  kindly. 


42  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

The  answers  should  be  expressed  in  simple  terms;  and 
all  phrases  should  be  avoided  which  are  not  likely  to 
convey  a  clear  idea  to  the  man  who  hears  them  for  the 
first  time.  There  are  many  persons  who  really  do  not 
understand  forms  of  writing  which  may  have  become 
common  to  you.  When  they  find  that  courteous  expres- 
sions mean  nothing,  they  think  that  a  wilful  deception 
has  been  practiced  upon  them.  And  in  general,  you 
should  consider  that  people  will  naturally  put  the  largest 
construction  upon  every  ambiguous  expression,  and 
every  term  of  courtesy  which  can  be  made  to  express 
anything  at  all  in  their  favour. 

It  will  often  be  necessary  to  see  applicants ;  and  in  this 
case  you  must  bear  in  mind  that  you  have  not  only  the 
delusions  of  hope  and  the  misinterpretation  of  language 
to  contend  against,  but  also  the  imperfection  of  men's 
memories.  If  possible,  therefore,  do  not  let  the  inter- 
view be  the  termination  of  the  matter:  let  it  lead  to 
something  in  writing,  so  that  you  may  have  an  opportu- 
nity of  recording  what  you  wished  to  express.  Avoid  a 
promising  manner,  as  people  will  be  apt  to  find  words 
for  it.  Do  not  resort  to  evasive  answers  for  the  purpose 
only  of  bringing  the  interview  to  a  close;  nor  shrink 
from  giving  a  distinct  denial,  merely  because  the  person 
to  whom  you  ought  to  give  it  is  before  you,  and  you 
would  have  to  witness  any  pain  which  it  might  occasion. 
Let  not  that  balance  of  justice  which  Corruption  could 
not  alter  one  hair's  breadth,  be  altogether  disturbed  by 
Sensibility. 

To  determine  in  what  cases  the  refusal  of  a  suit  should 
be  accompanied  by  reasons,  is  a  matter  of  considerable 


THE   TREATMENT   OF   SUITORS.  43 

difficulty.  It  must  depend  very  much  on  what  portion 
of  the  truth  you  are  able  to  bring  forward.  This  was 
mentioned  before  as  a  general  principle  in  the  transac- 
tion of  business,  and  it  may  be  well  to  abide  by  it  in 
answering  applications.  You  will  naturally  endeavor 
to  give  somewhat  of  a  detailed  explanation  when  you  are 
desirous  of  showing  respect  to  the  person  whom  you  are 
addressing;  but  if  the  explanation  is  not  a  sound  or  a 
complete  one,  it  would  be  better  to  see  whether  the  re- 
spect could  not  be  shown  in  some  other  way. 

In  many  cases,  and  especially  when  the  suit  is  a  mere 
project  of  effrontery,  it  will  perhaps  be  prudent  to  re- 
fuse, without  entering  at  all  upon  the  grounds  of  your 
refusal.  In  an  explanation  addressed  to  the  applicant, 
you  will  be  apt  to  omit  the  special  reasons  for  your  re- 
fusal, as  they  are  likely  to  be  such  as  would  mortify  his 
self-love ;  and  so  you  lay  yourself  open  to  an  accusation 
of  unfairness,  when  he  finds,  perhaps,  that  you  have 
selected  some  other  person,  who  came  as  fully  within  the 
scope  of  your  general  objections  as  he  did  himself. 
Therefore,  where  you  are  not  required,  and  do  not  like, 
to  give  special  reasons,  it  may  often  be  the  best  course 
simply  to  refuse,  or  to  couch  your  refusal  in  impregna- 
ble generalities. 

Remember  that  in  giving  any  reason  at  all  for  refus- 
ing, you  lay  some  foundation  for  a  future  request. 

Those  who  have  constantly  to  deal  with  suitors  are  in 
danger  of  giving  way  too  much  to  disgust  at  the  intru- 
sion, importunity,  and  egotism  which  they  meet  with. 
As  an  antidote  to  this,  they  should  remember  that  the 
suit  which  is  a  matter  of  business  to  them,  and  which, 


44  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

perhaps,  from  its  hopelessness,  they  look  upon  with  little 
interest,  seems  to  the  suitor  himself  a  thing  of  absorbing 
importance.  And  they  should  expect  a  man  in  distress 
to  be  as  unreasonable  as  a  sick  person,  and  as  much  occu- 
pied by  his  own  disorder. 


Councils  and  Commissions 


Experience  has  shown  that  whatever  may 
be  the  merits  of  boards  of  directors  as  coun- 
selors and  advisors,  they  do  not  possess  that 
prompt  judgment  that  is  so  often  needed  in 
emergencies.  If  in  much  counsel  there  is 
much  wisdom,  there  is  also  much  delay,  and 
while  undue  haste  is  bad,  unreasoning  hesi- 
tation is  even  worse,  for  mistakes  may  be 
remedied,  but  lost  opportunities  do  not  pre- 
sent themselves  again.  It  is  a  trite  saying 
that  "Councils  of  war  never  fight,"  and  it  is 
not  recorded  that  Napoleon  ever  submitted 
his  judgment  to  that  of  his  marshals.  He  lis- 
tened to  their  advice,  and  then  took  the  de- 
cision upon  himself. 

If  a  reckoning  be  made  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful concerns  in  this  country,  especially 
among  manufacturers,  it  will  be  found  that 
almost  without  exception  success  has  been 
due  to  the  dominating  influence  of  one  mas- 
ter mind,  who  has  impressed  his  individu- 
ality upon  the  concern  and  imparted  his 
spirit  to  its  members.  He  often  has  asso- 
ciated with  him  an  equally  strong  charac- 
ter, dissimilar,  yet  of  like  nature,  thus  form- 
ing the  needed  complement. — IRON  AGE. 


Councils  and  Commissions 

AND,    IN  GENERAL, 

BODIES   OF   MEN   CALLED   TOGETHER  TO  COUNSEL, 
OR  TO  DIRECT 

OUCH  bodies  are  the  fly-wheels  and  safety-valves  of 
^  the  machinery  of  business.  They  are  sometimes 
looked  upon  as  superfluities,  but  by  their  means  the  mo- 
tion is  equalized,  and  a  great  force  is  applied  with  little 
danger. 

They  are  apt  contrivances  for  obtaining  an  average  of 
opinions,  for  insuring  freedom  from  corruption,  and  the 
reputation  of  that  freedom.  On  ordinary  occasions  they 
are  more  courageous  than  most  individuals.  They  can 
bear  odium  better.  The  world  seldom  looks  to  personal 
character  as  the  predominating  cause  of  any  of  their 
doings,  though  this  is  one  of  the  first  things  which  occurs 
to  it  when  the  public  acts  of  any  individual  are  in  ques- 
tion. The  very  indistinctness  which  belongs  to  their 
corporate  existence  adds  a  certain  weight  to  their 
decisions. 

Councils  are  serviceable  as  affording  some  means  of 
judging  how  things  are  likely  to  be  generally  received. 
It  is  seldom  that  any  one  person,  however  capable  he 
may  be  of  framing,  or  of  executing  a  good  measure,  can 
come  to  a  satisfactory  conclusion  as  to  the  various  ap- 
pearances which  that  measure  will  present,  or  can  be 
made  to  present,  to  others.  In  some  instances  he  may 


48  THE  TRANSACTION  OP  BUSINESS. 

be  so  little  under  the  influence  of  the  common  prejudices 
around  him,  as  not  to  understand  their  force,  and  there- 
fore not  to  perceive  how  a  new  thing  will  be  received. 
Now,  if  he  has  the  opportunity  of  consulting  several 
persons  together,  he  will  not  only  have  the  advantage  of 
their  common  sense  and  joint  information,  but  he  will 
also  have  a  chance  of  hearing  what  will  be  the  common 
nonsense  of  ordinary  men  upon  the  subject,  and  of  pro- 
viding as  far  as  possible  against  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  these  bodies  are  much  tempted  by 
the  division  of  responsibility  to  sloth;  and  therefore  to 
dealing  with  things  superficially  and  inaccurately. 
Another  evil  is  the  want  of  that  continuity  of  purpose  in 
their  proceedings  which  is  to  be  found  in  those  of  an 
individual. 

As  it  tends  directly  to  diminish  many  of  the  advan- 
tages before  mentioned,  it  is,  in  general,  a  wrong  thing 
for  a  member  of  a  council  or  commission  to  let  the  outer 
world  know  that  his  private  opinion  is  adverse  to  any  of 
the  decisions  of  his  colleagues ;  or  indeed  to  indicate  the 
part,  whatever  it  may  have  been,  that  he  has  taken  in 
the  transaction  of  the  general  body. 

The  proper  number  of  persons  to  constitute  such 
bodies  must  vary  according  to  the  purpose  for  which 
they  are  called  together.  Such  a  number  as  would  afford 
any  temptation  for  oratorial  display  should  in  general 
be  avoided.  Another  limit,  which  it  may  be  prudent  to 
adopt,  is  to  have  only  so  many  members  as  to  make  it 
possible  in  most  cases  for  each  to  take  part  in  the  pro- 
ceedings. By  having  a  greater  number,  you  will  not  in- 
sure more  scrutiny  into  the  business.  It  will  still  be 


COUNCILS  AND  COMMISSIONS.  49 

done  by  a  few:  but  with  a  feeling  of  less  responsibility 
than  if  they  were  left  to  themselves,  and  with  the  inter- 
ruptions and  inconvenience  arising  from  the  number  of 
persons  present.  Besides,  the  greater  the  number,  the 
more  likelihood  there  is  of  parties  being  formed  in  the 
council. 

Whether  the  members  are  many  or  few,  there  should 
be  formalities,  strictly  maintained.  This  is  essential  in 
the  conduct  of  business.  Otherwise  there  will  be  such 
a  state  of  things  as  that  described  by  Pepys  in  his 
account  of  a  meeting  of  the  Privy  Council;  which,  like 
most  of  his  descriptions,  one  feels  to  be  true  to  the  life. 
"Went  to  a  Committee  of  the  Council  to  discourse  con- 
cerning pressing  of  men;  but  Lord!  how  they  meet; 
never  sit  down :  one  comes,  now  another  goes,  then  comes 
another ;  one  complaining  that  nothing  is  done,  another 
swearing  that  he  hath  been  there  these  two  hours  and 
nobody  come.  At  last  my  Lord  Annesley  says,  'I  think 
we  must  be  forced  to  get  the  King  to  come  to  every 
Committee ;  for  I  do  not  see  that  we  do  anything  at  any 
time  but  when  he  is  here. '  3 

The  great  art  of  making  use  of  councils,  commissions, 
and  such  like  bodies,  is  to  know  what  kind  of  matter  to 
put  before  them,  and  in  what  state  to  present  it.  '  There 
be  three  parts  of  business,  the  preparation ;  the  debate, 
or  examination ;  and  the  perfection ;  whereof,  if  you  look 
for  dispatch,  let  the  middle  only  be  the  work  of  many, 
and  the  first  and  last  the  work  of  few.  '* 

There  is  likely  to  be  a  great  waste  of  time  and  labour 
when  a  thing  is  brought  in  all  its  first  vagueness  to  be 

*Bacon's  Essay  on  Dispatch. 
4 


50  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

debated  or  examined  by  a  number  of  persons.  And 
there  will  be  much  in  the  ' preparation '  and  'perfection' 
of  a  matter  which,  will  only  become  confused  by  being 
submitted  to  a  full  assembly.  You  might  as  well  think 
of  making  love  by  a  council  or  a  board.  It  should 
therefore  be  the  business  of  some  one,  either  in  the 
council  or  subordinate  to  it,  to  bring  the  matter  forward 
in  a  distinct  and  definite  shape.  Otherwise  there  will 
be  a  wilderness  of  things  said  before  you  arrive  at  any 
legitimate  point  of  discussion.  And  hence  Bacon  adds, 
'Proceeding  upon  something  conceived  in  writing  for 
the  most  part  facilitates  dispatch;  for  though  it  should 
be  wholly  rejected,  yet  that  negative  is  more  pregnant 
of  direction  than  an  indefinite  action. ' 


In  order  to  bring  the  responsibility  of  any  act  of  the 
general  body  home  to  the  individuals  composing  it,  no 
method  seems  so  good  as  that  requiring  the  signatures  of 
a  large  proportion  of  the  council  or  commission  to  the 
directions  given  in  the  matter.  Even  the  most  careless 
people  have  a  sort  of  aversion  to  signing  things  which 
they  have  never  considered.  This  plan  is  better  than 
requiring  the  signatures  of  the  whole  body.  For  it  is 
less  likely  to  degenerate  into  a  mere  formality:  and 
besides,  the  other  course  .would  give  any  one  crotchety 
man  too  great  a  power  of  hinderance. 

The  responsibility,  also,  of  those  persons  who  settle 
the  details  of  a  matter,  whether  secretaries,  or  commit- 
tees of  the  council,  should  be  clearly  attested  either  by 
their  signatures,  or  by  a  memorandum  showing  what 
part  of  the  business  has  been  intrusted  to  them. 


COUNCILS  AND  COMMISSIONS.  51 

As  to  the  kind  of  men  to  be  specially  chosen  or  reject- 
ed, it  would  be  trifling  to  lay  down  any  minute  rules. 
You  often  require  a  diversity  of  natures  in  order  that 
the  various  modes  of  acting,  congenial  to  different  minds 
and  tempers,  should  have  an  opportunity  of  being  can- 
vassed. 

When  a  man's  faults  are  those  which  come  to  the 
surface  in  social  life,  they  must  be  noted  as  certain 
hinderances  to  his  usefulness  as  a  member  of  any  of 
these  bodies.  A  man  may  be  proud  or  selfish,  and  yet 
a  good  councillor;  he  may  be  secretly  ill-tempered,  and 
yet  a  reasonable  man  in  his  converse  with  the  world; 
capable  of  bearing  opposition,  and  an  excellent  coad- 
jutor; but  if  he  is  vain,  or  fond  of  disputes,  or  dicta- 
torial, you  know  that  his  efficiency  in  a  council  must  to  a 
certain  extent  be  counteracted. 

Those  men  are  the  grace  and  strength  of  councils  who 
are  of  that  healthful  nature  which  is  content  to  take  de- 
feat with  good  humour,  and  of  that  practical  turn  of 
mind  which  makes  them  set  heartily  to  work  upon  plans 
and  propositions  which  have  been  originated  in  opposi- 
tion to  their  judgment;  who  are  not  anxious  to  shift 
responsibility  upon  others;  and  who  do  not  allude  to 
their  former  objections  with  triumph,  when  those  objec- 
tions come  to  be  borne  out  by  the  result.  In  acting  with 
such  persons  you  are  at  your  ease.  You  counsel  sincerely 
and  boldly,  and  not  with  a  timorous  regard  to  your  own 
part  in  the  matter. 

The  men  who  have  method,  and,  as  it  were,  a  judicial 
intellect,  are  most  valuable  councillors.  Without  some 
such  in  council,  a  great  deal  of  cleverness  goes  for 


52  THE  TRANSACTION   OP  BUSINESS. 

nothing :  as  there  is  nobody  to  see  what  has  been  stated 
and  answered,  to  what  their  deliberations  tend,  and  what 
progress  has  been  made.  Such  persons  can  gather  the 
sense  of  a  mixed  assembly,  and  suggest  some  line  of 
action  which  m#y  honestly  meet  the  different  views  of 
the  various  members.  They  will  bring  back  the  subject- 
matter  when  it  has  all  but  floated  away,  while  the  others 
have  been  looking  for  sea-weed,  or  throwing  stones  at 
one  another  on  the  shore. 


*The  Value  of  Counsel 


IVA  ANY  a  king  has  lost  his  head  who  would  have  re- 
tained it  upon  his  shoulders  if  there  had  been 
someone  about  him  with  the  courage  and  the  chance  to 
speak  the  plain  truth,  and  many  a  manufacturer  has 
failed  for  precisely  the  same  reason.  There  are  many 
owners  of  manufacturing  establishments  who  cannot 
bear  to  think  that  any  ideas  but  their  own  are  good  for 
anything  in  the  conduct  of  their  business  and  who,  by  a 
process  of  natural  selection,  gather  about  themselves  a 
set  of  men  who  have  no  ideas  of  their  own,  don't  want  to 
have  any,  believe  that  their  own  interests  will  be  best 
served  by  sycophancy  or  'ready  acquiescence  with  the 
ideas  of  the  old  man7  and  never  speak  to  him  otherwise 


*The  pertinency  of  this  short  article,  from  the  American 
Machinist,  is  so  apparent  that  we  feel  that  no  apology  is 
necessary  for  interpolating  it  here. — EDITOR. 


THE  VALUE   OF   COUNSEL.  53 

than  in  flattery  or  humble  adulation.  If  the  'old  man's' 
ideas  are  all  right,  this  does  not  work  so  very  badly,  but 
if  they  are  wrong,  in  whole  or  in  part,  there  is  no  check 
upon  them,  nor  any  tendency  within  the  establishment 
itself  to  correct  wrong  things. 

How  often  do  we  see  a  shop  proprietor  who  is  an 
adept  in  the  art  of  meeting  and  dealing  with  customers, 
but  who  does  not  get  along  well  with  his  employees. 
This  is  usually  not  because  his  customers  are  a  different 
sort  of  men,  but  because  a  customer,  being  usually  quite 
independent,  is  free  to  express  his  opinion  and  freely 
does  so  when  he  thinks  he  is  not  properly  treated,  and 
sometimes  takes  his  custom  elsewhere.  In  other  words, 
a  man  who  has  no  natural  tact  or  perhaps  little  disposi- 
tion to  consider  the  rights  or  feelings  of  others  is  soon 
taught  by  his  customers  to  regard  these  things  so  far  as 
they  are  concerned,  but  his  employees  usually  have  no 
such  opportunities,  and  yet  by  bad  relations  with  his 
employees  a  manufacturer  may  lose  as  much  as  by  bad 
relations  with  his  customers.  There  is  usually  a  decided 
advantage  in  one's  having  an  associate  who  dares  to 
speak  his  mind  freely  and  who  has  a  right  to  do  so. 
When  such  an  associate  is  not  provided  for  by  the  or- 
ganization of  the  business  its  head  must  depend  upon  the 
chance  man  who  can  do  it,  or  must  suffer  for  the  lack  of 
such  a  man. 

Corporations  usually  have  an  advantage  in  this  re- 
spect. Their  organization  gives  to  more  than  one  man 
the  right  and  the  duty  to  hold  views  and  express 
opinions  regarding  the  conduct  of  the  business,  es- 
pecially when  no  one  man  owns  sufficient  of  the  stock  to 
enable  him  to  dominate  all  other  stockholders. 


54  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

A  very  prominent  publishing  house  failed  a  while 
ago,  and  those  familiar  with  its  affairs  declared  that  one 
of  the  chief  reasons  for  its  decline  was  that  a  man  who 
dominated  it  chose  to  be  so  grumpy  and  disagreeable 
with  authors  that  all  the  best  ones  kept  clear  of  him  and 
his  house  got  only  the  leavings  of  others,  and  very  little 
of  the  best  work.  He  needed  a  man  who  could  talk 
plainly  to  him,  or  the  house  needed  a  new  man  in  his 
place.  Failing  in  both  these,  the  house  failed.  In 
manufacturing  lines  especially,  but  in  all  other  lines  of 
business  in  greater  or  less  degree,  the  man  who  guides 
the  destinies  of  any  large  business  needs  the  counsel  of 
others,  needs  to  know  how  they  regard  matters  of  policy 
from  their  more  or  less  different  standpoints,  and  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  no  man  can  be  himself  so  able  as  to  make 
the  ideas  or  opinions  of  others  of  no  importance  to  him. 
A  man  having  responsibility  must  of  course  make  the 
final  decision  in  matters  for  which  he  is  responsible,  but 
he  who  thinks  that  ultimate  responsibility  is  inconsistent 
with  the  careful  weighing  of  the  opinions  of  other  in- 
telligent men  makes  a  great  and  sometimes  fatal  mis- 
take. 


Advice 


The  greatest  trust  between  man  and  man 
is  the  trust  of  giving  counsel. — BACON. 

He  who  calls  in  the  aid  of  an  equal  under- 
standing doubles  his  own;  and  he  who  prof- 
its by  a  superior  understanding  raises  his 
powers  to  a  level  with  the  height  of  the 
superior  knowledge  he  unites  with. — BURKE. 

'Nothing  is  less  sincere  than  our  mode  of 
asking  and  giving  advice.  He  who  asks 
seems  to  have  deference  for  the  opinion  of 
his  friend,  while  he  only  aims  to  get  appro- 
val of  his  own  and  make  his  friend  respon- 
sible for  his  action.  And  he  who  gives 
repays  the  confidence,  supposed  to  be  placed 
in  him,  by  a  seemingly  disinterested  zeal, 
while  he  seldom  means  anything  but  his 
own  interest.' 


Advice 


A  DVICE  is  sure  of  a  hearing  when  it  coincides  with 
our  previous  conclusions,  and  therefore  comes  in 
the  shape  of  praise  or  of  encouragement*  It  is  not  un- 
welcome when  we  derive  it  for  ourselves,  by  applying 
the  moral  of  some  other  person's  life  to  our  own,  though 
the  points  of  resemblance  which  bring  it  home  may  be 
far  from  flattering  and  the  advice  itself  far  from  pala- 
table. We  can  even  endure  its  being  addressed  to  us 
by  another,  when  it  is  interwoven  with  regret  at  some 
error,  not  of  ours,  but  of  his ;  and  when  we  see  that  he 
throws  in  a  little  advice  to  us,  by  way  of  introducing, 
with  more  grace,  a  full  recital  of  his  own  misfortunes. 

But  in  general  it  is  with  advice  as  with  taxation;  we 
can  endure  very  little  of  either,  if  they  come  to  us  in  the 
direct  way.  They  must  not  thrust  themselves  upon  us. 
We  do  not  understand  their  knocking  at  our  doors;  be- 
sides, they  always  choose  such  inconvenient  times,  and 
are  for  ever  talking  of  arrears. 

There  is  a  wide  difference  between  the  advice  which  is 
thrust  upon  you,  and  that  which  you  have  to  seek  for; 
the  general  carelessness  of  the  one,  and  the  caution  of 
the  other,  are  to  be  taken  into  account.  In  sifting  the 
latter,  you  must  take  care  to  separate  the  decorous  part 


58  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

of  it.  I  mean  all  that  which  the  adviser  puts  in,  because 
he  thinks  the  world  would  expect  it  from  a  person  of  his 
character  and  station — all  that  which  was  to  sound  well 
to  the  third  party,  of  whom,  perhaps,  the  adviser  stands 
somewhat  in  awe.  You  cannot  expect  him  to  neglect 
his  own  safety.  The  oracles  will  Philippize,  as  long  as 
Philip  is  the  master :  but  still  they  have  an  inner  mean- 
ing for  Athenian  ears. 

It  is  a  disingenuous  thing  to  ask  for  advice,  when  you 
mean  assistance;  and  it  will  be  a  just  punishment  if  you 
get  that  which  you  pretend  to  want.  There  is  still  a 
greater  insincerity  in  affecting  to  care  about  another's 
advice,  when  you  lay  the  circumstances  before  him  only 
for  the  chance  of  his  sanctioning  a  course  which  you  had 
previously  resolved  on.  This  practice  is  noticed  by 
Rochefoucauld,  who  has  also  laid  bare  the  falseness  of 
those  givers  of  advice  who  have  hardly  heard  to  the  end 
of  your  story,  before  they  have  begun  to  think  how  they 
can  advise  upon  it  to  their  own  interest,  or  their  own 
renown. 

It  is  a  maxim  of  prudence  that  when  you  advise  a  man 
to  do  something  which  is  for  your  own  interest  as  well  as 
for  his,  you  should  put  your  own  motive  for  advising 
him  full  in  view,  with  all  the  weight  that  belongs  to  it. 
If  you  conceal  the  interest  which  you  have  in  the  matter, 
and  he  should  afterwards  discover  it,  he  will  be  reso- 
lutely deaf  even  to  that  part  of  the  argument  which 
fairly  does  concern  himself.  If  the  lame  man  had  en- 
deavoured to  persuade  his  blind  friend  that  it  was  pure 
charity  which  induced  him  to  lend  the  use  of  his  eyes, 
you  may  be  certain  that  he  never  would  have  been  car- 
ried home, though  it  was  the  other's  interest  to  carry  him. 


ADVICE.  59 

To  get  extended  views,  you  should  consult  with  per- 
sons who  differ  from  you  in  disposition,  circumstances, 
and  modes  of  thought.  At  the  same  time,  the  most  prac- 
ticable advice  may  often  be  obtained  from  those  who  are 
of  a  similar  nature  to  yourself,  or  who  understand  you  so 
thoroughly  that  they  are  sure  to  make  their  advice  per- 
sonal. This  advice  will  contain  sympathy ;  for  as  it  has 
been  said,  a  man  always  sympathizes  to  a  certain  extent 
with  what  he  understands.  It  will  not,  perhaps,  be  the 
soundest  advice  that  can  be  given  in  the  abstract,  but  it 
may  be  that  which  you  can  best  profit  by ;  for  you  may 
be  able  to  act  up  to  it  with  some  consistency.  This  ap- 
plies more  particularly  when  the  advice  is  wanted  for 
some  matter  which  is  not  of  a  temporary  nature,  and 
where  a  course  of  action  will  have  to  be  adopted.  It  is 
observed  in  The  Statesman  with  much  truth,  'Nothing 
can  be  for  a  man's  interest  in  the  long  run  which  is  not 
founded  on  his  character. ' 

For  similar  reasons,  when  you  have  to  give  advice,  you 
should  never  forget  whom  you  are  addressing,  and  what 
is  practicable  for  him.  You  should  not  look  about  for 
the  wisest  thing  which  can  be  said,  but  for  that  which 
your  friend  has  the  heart  to  undertake,  and  the  ability 
to  accomplish.  You  must  sometimes  feel  with  him,  be- 
fore you  can  possibly  think  for  him.  There  is  more  need 
of  keeping  this  in  mind,  the  greater  you  know  the  differ- 
ence to  be  between  your  friend's  nature  and  your  own. 
Your  advice  should  not  degenerate  into  comparisons  be- 
tween what  would  have  been  your  conduct,  and  what  was 
your  friend's.  You  should  be  able  to  take  the  matter  up 
at  the  point  at  which  it  is  brought  to  you.  It  is  very  well 
to  go  back,  and  to  show  him  what  might,  or  what  ought 


60  THE  TRANSACTION  OP  BUSINESS. 

to  have  been  done,  if  it  throws  any  light  upon  what  is  to 
be  done ;  or  if  you  have  any  other  good  purpose  in  such 
conversation.  But  remember  that  comment,  however 
judicious,  is  not  advice;  and  that  advice  should  always 
tend  to  something  practicable. 

The  advice  which  we  have  just  been  speaking  of,  is  of 
that  kind  which  relates  to  points  of  conduct.  If  you 
want  to  change  a  man 's  principles,  you  may  have  to  take 
him  out  of  himself,  as  it  were ;  to  show  him  fully  the  in- 
tense difference  between  your  own  views  and  his,  and  to 
trace  up  that  difference  to  its  source.  Your  object  is  not 
to  make  him  do  the  best  with  what  he  has,  but  to  induce 
him  to  throw  something  away  altogether. 

There  are  occasions  on  which  a  man  feels  that  he  has 
so  fully  made  up  his  mind  that  hardly  anything  could 
move  him ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  he  knows  that  he  shall 
meet  with  much  blame  from  those  whose  good  opinion  is 
of  value  to  him,  if  he  acts  according  to  that  mind.  Let 
him  not  think  to  break  his  fall  by  asking  their  advice 
beforehand.  As  it  is,  they  will  be  severe  upon  him  for 
not  having  consulted  them ;  but  they  will  be  outrageous, 
if  after  having  consulted  them,  he  then  acts  in  direct 
opposition  to  their  counsel.  Besides,  they  will  not  be  so 
inclined  to  parade  the  fact  of  their  not  having  been  con- 
sulted, as  they  would  of  their  having  given  judicious 
advice  which  was  unhappily  neglected.  I  am  not  speak- 
ing of  those  instances  in  which  a  man  is  bound  to  consult 
others,  but  of  such  as  constantly  occur,  where  his  con- 
sulting them  is  a  thing  which  may  be  expected,  but  is  not 
due. 

In  seeking  for  a  friend  to  advise  you,  look  for  upright- 
ness in  him,  rather  then  for  ingenuity.  It  frequently 


ADVICE.  61 

happens  that  all  you  want  is  moral  strength.  You  can 
discern  consequences  well  enough,  but  cannot  make  up 
your  mind  to  bear  them.  Let  your  Mentor  also  be  a  per- 
son of  nice  conscience,  for  such  a  one  is  less  likely  to  fall 
into  that  error  to  which  we  are  all  so  liable,  of  advising 
our  friends  to  act  with  less  forbearance,  and  with  less 
generosity,  than  we  should  be  inclined  to  show  ourselves, 
if  the  case  were  our  own.  'If  I  were  you*  is  a  phrase 
often  on  our  lips;  but  we  take  good  care  not  to  disturb 
our  identity,  nor  to  quit  the  disengaged  position  of  a  by- 
stander. We  recommend  the  course  we  might  pursue  if 
we  were  acting  for  you  in  your  absence,  but  such  as  you 
never  ought  to  undertake  in  your  own  behalf. 

Besides  being  careful  for  your  own  sake  about  the  per- 
sons whom  you  go  to  for  advice,  you  should  be  careful 
also  for  theirs.  It  is  an  act  of  selfishness  unnecessarily 
to  consult  those  who  are  likely  to  feel  a  peculiar  difficulty 
or  delicacy  in  being  your  advisers,  and  who,  perhaps,  had 
better  not  be  informed  at  all  about  the  matter. 


Secrecy 


'Secrecy  has  well  been  termed  the  soul  of 
all  great  designs.  Perhaps  more  has  been 
effected  by  concealing  our  own  intentions, 
than  by  discovering  those  of  our  enemy. 
But  great  men  succeed  in  both.' 

Washington,  having  been  asked  by  an  of- 
ficer, on  the  morning  of  a  battle,  what  were 
his  plans  for  the  day,  replied  in  a  whisper, 
'Can  you  keep  a  secret?'  On  being  answered 
in  the  affirmative,  the  general  answered — 
'So  can  I.' 

A  resolution  that  is  communicated  is  no 
longer  within  thy  power;  thy  intentions  be- 
come now  the  plaything  of  chance;  he  who 
would  have  his  commands  certainly  carried 
out  must  take  men  by  surprise. — GOETHE. 


Secrecy 


C  OR  once  that  secrecy  is  formally  imposed  upon  you, 
it  is  implied  a  hundred  times  by  the  concurrent  cir- 
cumstances. All  that  your  friend  says  to  you,  as  to  his 
friend,  is  intrusted  to  you  only.  Much  of  what  a  man 
tells  you  in  the  hour  of  affliction,  in  sudden  anger,  or  in 
any  outpouring  of  his  heart,  should  be  sacred.  In  his 
craving  for  sympathy  he  has  spoken  to  you  as  to  his  own 
soul. 

To  repeat  what  you  have  heard  in  social  intercourse 
is  sometimes  a  sad  treachery,  and  when  it  is  not 
treacherous  it  is  often  foolish.  For  you  commonly  relate 
but  a  part  of  what  has  happened,  and  even  if  you  are 
able  to  relate  that  part  with  fairness,  it  is  still  as  likely 
to  be  misconstrued  as  a  word  of  many  meanings,  in  a 
foreign  tongue,  without  the  context. 

There  are  few  conversations  which  do  not  imply  some 
degree  of  mutual  confidence,  however  slight.  And  in 
addition  to  that  which  is  said  in  confidence,  there  is 
generally  something  which  is  peculiar  though  not  con- 
fidential; which  is  addressed  to  the  present  company 
alone,  though  not  confided  to  their  secrecy.  It  is  meant 
for  them,  or  for  persons  like  them,  and  they  are  expected 
to  understand  it  rightly.  So  that  when  a  man  has  no 

scruple  in  repeating  all  that  he  hears  to  anybody  that 
5 


66  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

he  meets,  he  pays  but  a  poor  compliment  to  himself ;  for 
he  seems  to  take  it  for  granted  that  what  was  said  in 
his  presence,  would  have  been  said,  in  the  same  words, 
at  any  time,  aloud,  and  in  the  market  place.  In  short, 
that  he  is  the  average  man  of  mankind;  which  I  doubt 
much  whether  any  man  would  like  to  consider  himself. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  an  habitual  and  unmean- 
ing reserve  in  some  men,  which  makes  secrets  without 
any  occasion;  and  it  is  the  least  to  say  of  such  things 
that  they  are  needless.  Sometimes  it  proceeds  from  an 
innate  shyness  or  timidity  of  disposition;  sometimes 
from  a  temper  naturally  suspicious;  or,  it  may  be  the 
result  of  having  been  frequently  betrayed  or  oppressed. 
From  whatever  cause  it  comes,  it  is  a  failing.  As  cun- 
ning is  some  men's  strength,  so  this  sort  of  reserve  is 
some  men's  prudence.  The  man  who  does  not  know 
when,  or  how  much,  or  to  whom  to  confide,  will  do  well 
to  maintain  a  Pythagorean  silence.  It  is  his  best  course. 
I  would  not  have  him  change  it  on  any  account.  I  only 
wish  him  not  to  mistake  it  for  wisdom. 


That  happy  union  of  frankness  and  reserve  which  is 
to  be  desired,  comes  not  by  studying  rules,  either  for 
candor  or  for  caution.  It  results  chiefly  from  an  up- 
rightness of  purpose  enlightened  by  a  profound  and 
delicate  care  for  the  feelings  of  others.  This  will  go 
very  far  in  teaching  us  what  to  confide,  and  what  to  con- 
ceal, in  our  own  affairs;  what  to  repeat  and  what  to 
suppress  in  those  of  other  people.  The  stone  in  which 
nothing  is  seen,  and  the  polished  metal  which  reflects  all 
things,  are  both  alike  hard  and  insensible. 


SECRECY.  67 

When  a  matter  is  made  public,  to  proclaim  that  it  had 
ever  been  confided  to  your  secrecy  may  be  no  trifling 
breach  of  confidence,  and  it  is  the  only  one  which  is 
then  left  for  you  to  commit. 

With  respect  to  the  kind  of  people  to  be  trusted,  it 
may  be  observed  that  grave,  proud  men  are  very  safe 
confidants,  and  that  those  persons  who  have  ever  had  to 
conduct  any  business  in  which  secrecy  was  essential,  are 
likely  to  acquire  a  habit  of  reserve  for  all  occasions. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  question  whether  a  secret 
will  escape  sooner  by  means  of  a  vain  man  or  a  simple- 
ton. There  are  some  people  who  play  with  a  secret 
until  at  last  it  is  suggested  by  their  manner  to  some 
shrewd  person  who  knows  a  little  of  the  circumstances 
connected  with  it.  There  are  others  whom  it  is  unsafe 
to  trust;  not  that  they  are  vain,  and  so  wear  the  secret 
as  an  ornament ;  not  that  they  are  foolish,  and  so  let  it 
drop  by  accident;  not  that  they  are  treacherous,  and 
so  sell  it  for  their  own  advantage.  But  they  are  simple- 
minded  people,  with  whom  the  world  has  gone  smoothly, 
who  would  not  themselves  make  any  mischief  of  the 
secret  which  they  disclose  and,  therefore,  do  not  see 
what  harm  can  come  of  telling  it. 

Before  you  make  any  confidence,  you  should  consider 
whether  the  thing  you  wish  to  confide  is  of  weight 
enough  to  be  a  secret.  Your  small  secrets  require  the 
greatest  care.  Most  persons  suppose  that  they  have 
kept  them  sufficiently  when  they  have  been  silent  about 
them  for  a  certain  time ;  and  this  is  hardly  to  be  won- 
dered at,  if  there  is  nothing  in  their  nature  to  remind 
a  person  that  they  were  told  to  him  as  secrets. 


68  THE   TRANSACTION  OP  BUSINESS. 

There  is  sometimes  a  good  reason  for  using  conceal- 
ment even  with  your  dearest  friends.  It  is  that  you  may 
be  less  liable  to  be  reminded  of  your  anxieties  when  you 
have  resolved  to  put  them  aside.  Few  persons  have  tact 
enough  to  perceive  when  to  be  silent  and  when  to  offer 
you  counsel  or  condolence. 

You  should  be  careful  not  to  intrust  another  unneces- 
sarily with  a  secret  which  it  may  be  a  hard  matter  for 
him  to  keep,  and  which  may  expose  him  to  somebody's 
displeasure,  when  it  is  thereafter  discovered  that  he  was 
the  object  of  your  confidence.  Your  desire  for  aid,  or 
for  sympathy,  is  not  to  be  indulged  by  dragging  other 
people  into  your  misfortunes. 

There  is  as  much  responsibility  in  imparting  your  own 
secrets,  as  in  keeping  those  of  your  neighbor. 


Practical  Wisdom 


The  successful  man,  he  who  brings  things 
to  pass,  grows  stronger  and  more  deter- 
mined when  the  way  looks  darkest.  Instead 
of  becoming  discouraged  as  the  obstacles 
which  bar  his  progress  grow  more  and  more 
formidable,  he  arouses  himself  like  a  lion 
to  meet  and  finally  overcome  them.  He 
does  not  waste  his  energies  and  time  in 
trying  to  evade  or  go  around  obstructions; 
he  ploughs  his  way  through  them. 

When  you  have  a  disagreeable,  perplexing 
thing  to  do,  don't  put  off  the  doing.  Antici- 
pation will  clothe  it  with  new  difficulties, 
and  fear,  of  what  after  all  may  be  more 
imaginary  than  real,  will  steal  your  peace  of 
mind,  and  perhaps  destroy  your  strength 
and  ability  to  do  the  thing  required.  Prompt, 
vigorous  action  robs  a  dreaded  task  of  half 
its  terrors. — SUCCESS. 


Practical   Wisdom 


D  RAG  TIC  AL  wisdom  acts  in  the  mind,  as  gravitation 
does  in  the  material  world:  combining,  keeping 
things  in  their  places,  and  maintaining  a  mutual  depend- 
ence amongst  the  various  parts  of  our  system.  It  is  for- 
ever reminding  us  where  we  are,  and  what  we  can  do, 
not  in  fancy,  but  in  real  life.  It  does  not  permit  us  to 
wait  for  dainty  duties,  pleasant  to  the  imagination,  but 
insists  upon  our  doing  those  which  are  before  us.  It  is 
always  inclined  to  make  much  of  what  it  possesses,  and 
is  not  given  to  ponder  over  those  schemes  which  might 
have  been  carried  on,  if  what  is  irrevocable  had  been 
other  than  it  is.  It  does  not  suffer  us  to  waste  our 
energies  in  regret.  In  journeying  with  it  we  go  towards 
the  sun,  and  the  shadow  of  our  burden  falls  behind  us. 

In  bringing  anything  to  completion,  the  means  which 
it  looks  for  are  not  the  shortest,  nor  the  neatest,  nor  the 
best  that  can  be  imagined.  They  have,  however,  this 
advantage,  that  they  happen  to  be  within  reach. 

We  are  liable  to  make  constant  mistakes  about  the 
nature  of  practical  wisdom,  until  we  come  to  perceive 
that  it  consists  not  in  any  one  predominant  faculty  or 
disposition,  but  rather  in  a  certain  harmony  amongst 
all  the  faculties  and  affections  of  the  man.  Where  this 
harmony  exists,  there  are  likely  to  be  well-chosen  ends, 
and  means  judiciously  adapted.  But,  as  it  is,  we  see 


72  THE   TRANSACTION   OP  BUSINESS. 

numerous  instances  of  men  who,  with  great  abilities, 
accomplish  nothing,  and  we  are  apt  to  vary  our  views  of 
practical  wisdom  according  to  the  particular  failings  of 
these  men.  Sometimes  we  think  it  consists  in  having  a 
definite  purpose,  and  being  constant  to  it.  But  take 
the  case  of  a  deeply  selfish  person:  he  will  be  constant 
enough  to  his  purpose,  and  it  will  be  a  definite  one. 
Very  likely,  too,  it  may  not  be  founded  upon  unreason- 
able expectations.  The  object  which  he  has  in  view  may 
be  a  small  thing,  but  being  as  close  to  his  eyes  as  to  his 
heart,  there  will  be  times  when  he  can  see  nothing  above 
it,  or  beyond  it,  or  beside  it.  And  so  he  may  fail  in 
practical  wisdom. 

Sometimes  it  is  supposed  that  practical  wisdom  is  not 
likely  to  be  found  amongst  '  imaginative  persons/  And 
this  is  very  true,  if  you  mean  by  l  imaginative  persons, ' 
those  who  have  an  excess  of  imagination.  For  in  the 
mind,  as  in  the  body,  general  dwarfishness  is  often 
accompanied  by  a  disproportionate  size  of  some  part. 
The  large  hands  and  feet  of  a  dwarf  seen  to  have  de- 
voured his  stature.  But  if  you  mean  that  imagination, 
of  itself,  is  something  inconsistent  with  practical  wisdom, 
I  think  you  will  find  that  your  opinion  is  not  founded 
on  experience.  On  the  contrary,  I  believe  that  there 
have  been  few  men  who  have  done  great  things  in  the 
world  who  have  not  had  a  large  power  of  imagination. 
For  imagination,  if  it  be  subject  to  reason,  is  its  ' slave 
of  the  lamp/ 

It  is  a  common  error  to  suppose  that  practical  wisdom 
is  something  epicurean  in  its  nature,  which  makes  no 
difficulties,  takes  things  as  they  come,  is  desirous  of 
getting  rid  rather  than  of  completing,  and  which,  in 


PRACTICAL  WISDOM.  73 

short  is  never  troublesome.  And  from  a  fancy  of  this 
kind,  many  persons  are  considered  speculative  merely 
because  they  are  of  a  searching  nature,  and  are  not 
satisfied  with  small  expedients  and  such  devices  as  serve 
to  conceal  the  ills  they  cannot  cure.  And  if  to  be  prac- 
tical is  to  do  things  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  a  great  deal 
for  other  people  to  undo  at  some  future,  and  no  very 
distant  period — then,  certainly,  these  scrutinizing,  pains- 
taking sort  of  persons  are  not  practical.  For  it  is  their 
nature  to  prefer  a  good  open  visible  rent  to  a  timeserv- 
ing patch.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  they  may  not  resort 
to  patching  as  a  means  of  delay,  but  they  will  not  permit 
themselves  to  fancy  that  they  have  done  a  thing  when 
they  have  only  hit  upon  some  expedient  for  putting  off 
the  doing. 

Bacon  says,  'In  this  theatre  of  man's  life,  God  and 
angels  only  should  be  lookers-on;  that  contemplation 
and  action  ought  ever  to  be  united,  a  conjunction  like 
unto  that  of  the  two  highest  planets— Saturn,  the  planet 
of  rest,  and  Jupiter,  the  planet  of  action. '  It  is  in  this 
conjunction,  which  seems  to  Bacon  so  desirable,  that 
practical  wisdom  delights,  and  on  that  account  it  is  sup- 
posed by  some  men  to  have  a  tinge  of  baseness  in  it. 
They  do  not  know  that  practical  wisdom  is  as  far  from 
what  they  term  expediency  as  it  is  from  impractica- 
bility itself.  They  see  how  much  of  compromise  there 
is  in  all  human  affairs.  At  the  same  time,  they  do  not 
perceive  that  this  compromise,  which  should  be  the  nice 
limit  between  wilfulness  and  a  desertion  of  the  light 
that  is  within  us,  is  the  thing  of  all  others  which  requires 
the  diligent  exercise  of  that  uprightness,  which  they 


74  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

fear  to  put  in  peril,  and  which,  they  persuade  them- 
selves, will  be  strengthened  by  inactivity.  They  fancy, 
too,  that  high  moral  resolves  and  great  principles  are  not 
for  daily  use,  and  that  there  is  no  room  for  them  in  the 
affairs  of  this  life.  This  is  an  extreme  delusion.  For 
how  is  the  world  ever  made  better?  Not  by  mean  little 
schemes  which  some  men  fondly  call  practical,  not  by 
setting  one  evil  thing  to  counteract  another,  but  by  the 
introduction  of  those  principles  of  action  which  are 
looked  upon  at  first  as  theories,  but  which  are  at  last 
acknowledged  and  acted  upon  as  common  truths.  The 
men  who  first  introduce  these  principles  are  practical 
men,  though  the  practices  which  such  principles  create 
may  not  come  into  being  in  the  life-time  of  their 
founders. 


The  Education  of  a  Man  of  Business 


^Aim.v/ 

/  OF  THE     ' 

f    WNIVERSITY 


ITY 

OF 


In  these  days  of  elaborate  education  in  all 
lines,  the  fact  has  been  forgotten  that  the 
mental  faculty  called  'judgment'  is  one  that 
is  inherent  and  congenital,  and  can  neither 
be  induced  nor  improved  by  education.  Of 
the  many  thousands  that  annually  graduate 
from  the  world's  collegiate  and  technical  in- 
stitutions but  a  minute  fraction  are  ever 
heard  of  again,  while  of  the  men  who  attain 
celebrity  as  capables  in  all  lines,  more  than 
90  per  cent,  statistically,  have  never  had  an 
education  in  their  youth  in  anything  but  the 
fundamentals,  but  have  attained  success  be- 
cause of  the  possession  of  an  inherent  capa- 
bility in  their  line  and  because  they  were 
gifted  from  birth  by  that  invaluable  quality 
we  call  'judgment.'  This  is  not  an  argu- 
ment against  education  but  against  an  un- 
warranted dependence  upon  it.  The  world  is 
beginning  to  find  out  that  not  only  poets 
but  all  kinds  of  notables  are  born  and  not 
made. — MINING  REPORTER. 


The  Education  of  a  Man  of 
Business 

"F  HE  essential  qualities  for  a  man  of  business  are  of  a 
moral  nature ;  these  are  to  be  cultivated  first.  He 
must  learn  betimes  to  love  truth.  That  same  love  of 
truth  will  be  found  a  potent  charm  to  bear  him  safely 
through  the  world's  entanglements— I  mean  safely  in  the 
most  worldly  sense.  Besides,  the  love  of  truth  not  only 
makes  a  man  act  with  more  simplicity,  and  therefore 
with  less  chance  of  error;  but  it  conduces  to  the  highest 
intellectual  development.  The  following  passage  in  The 
Statesman  gives  the  reason :  '  The  correspondence  of  wis- 
dom and  goodness  are  manifold;  and  that  they  will  ac- 
company each  other  is  to  be  inferred,  not  only  because 
men's  wisdom  makes  them  good,  but  also  because  their 
goodness  makes  them  wise.  Questions  of  right  and  wrong 
are  a  perpetual  exercise  of  the  faculties  of  those  who  are 
solicitious  as  to  the  right  and  wrong  of  what  they  do  and 
see ;  and  a  deep  interest  of  the  heart  in  these  questions 
carries  with  it  a  deeper  cultivation  of  the  understanding 
than  can  be  easily  effected  by  any  other  excitement  to 
intellectual  activity/ 

What  has  just  been  said  of  the  love  of  truth  applies 
also  to  other  moral  qualities.  Thus,  charity  enlightens 
the  understanding  quite  as  much  as  it  purifies  the  heart. 
And  indeed  knowledge  is  not  more  girt  about  with  power 
than  goodness  is  with  wisdom. 


78  THE  TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

The  next  thing  in  the  training  of  one  who  is  to  become 
a  man  of  business  will  be  for  him  to  form  principles ;  for 
without  these,  when  thrown  on  the  sea  of  action,  he  will 
be  without  rudder  and  compass.  They  are  the  best  re- 
sults of  study.  Whether  it  is  history,  or  political  econ- 
omy, or  ethics,  that  he  is  studying,  these  principles  are 
to  be  the  reward  of  his  labour.  A  principle  resembles  a 
law  in  the  physical  world ;  though  it  can  seldom  have  the 
same  certainty,  as  the  facts  which  it  has  to  explain  and 
embrace  do  not  admit  of  being  weighed  or  numbered 
with  the  same  exactness  as  material  things.  The  prin- 
ciples which  our  student  adopts  at  first  may  be  unsound, 
may  be  insufficient,  but  he  must  not  neglect  to  form 
some;  and  must  only  nourish  a  love  of  truth  that  will 
not  allow  him  to  hold  to  any,  the  moment  that  he  finds 
them  to  be  erroneous. 

Much  depends  upon  the  temperament  of  a  man  of 
business.  It  should  be  hopeful,  that  it  may  bear  him  up 
against  the  faintheartedness,  the  folly,  the  falsehood,  and 
the  numberless  discouragements  which  even  a  prosperous 
man  will  have  to  endure.  It  should  also  be  calm;  for 
else  he  may  be  driven  wild  by  any  great  pressure  of 
business,  and  lose  his  time,  and  his  head,  in  rushing  from 
one  unfinished  thing,  to  begin  something  else.  Now  this 
wished-for  conjunction  of  the  calm  and  the  hopeful  is 
very  rare. 

It  is,  however,  in  every  man's  power  to  study  well  his 
own  temperament,  and  to  provide  against  the  defects 
in  it. 

A  habit  of  thinking  for  himself  is  one  which  may  be 
acquired  by  the  solitary  student.  But  the  habit  of  de- 


EDUCATION  OF  A  MAN  OF  BUSINESS.  79 

ciding  for  himself,  so  indispensable  to  a  man  of  business, 
is  not  to  be  gained  by  study.  Decision  is  a  thing  that 
cannot  be  fully  exercised  until  it  is  actually  wanted. 
You  cannot  play  at  deciding.  You  must  have  realities 
to  deal  with. 

It  is  true  that  the  formation  of  principles,  which  has 
been  spoken  of  before,  requires  decision ;  but  it  is  of  that 
kind  which  depends  upon  deliberate  judgement:  where- 
as, the  decision  which  is  wanted  in  the  world 's  business 
must  ever  be  within  call,  and  does  not  judge  so  much  as 
it  foresees  and  chooses.  This  kind  of  decision  is  to  be 
found  in  those  who  have  been  thrown  early  on  their  own 
resources,  or  who  have  been  brought  up  in  great  freedom. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  lay  down  any  course  of  study, 
not  technical,  that  would  be  peculiarly  fitted  to  form  a 
man  of  business.  He  should  be  brought  up  in  the  habit 
of  reasoning  closely :  and  to  insure  this,  there  is  hardly 
anything  better  for  him  than  the  study  of  geometry. 

In  any  course  of  study  to  be  laid  down  for  him,  some- 
thing like  universality  should  be  aimed  at,  which  not 
only  makes  the  mind  agile,  but  gives  variety  of  inform- 
ation. Such  a  system  will  make  him  acquainted  with 
many  modes  of  thought,  with  various  classes  of  facts, 
and  will  enable  him  to  understand  men  better. 

There  will  be  a  time  in  his  youth  which  may,  perhaps, 
be  well  spent  in  those  studies  which  are  of  a  metaphysical 
nature.  In  the  investigation  of  some  of  the  great  ques- 
tions of  philosophy,  a  breadth  and  tone  may  be  given 
to  a  man 's  mode  of  thinking,  which  will  afterwards  be  of 
signal  use  to  him  in  the  business  of  everyday  life. 


80  THE  TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

We  cannot  enter  here  into  a  description  of  the  techni- 
cal studies  for  a  man  of  business,  but  I  may  point  out 
that  there  are  works  which  soften  the  transition  from  the 
schools  to  the  world,  and  which  are  particularly  needed 
in  a  system  of  education,  like  our  own,  consisting  of 
studies  for  the  most  part  remote  from  real  life.  These 
works  are  such  as  tend  to  give  the  student  that  interest 
in  the  common  things  about  him  which  he  has  scarcely 
ever  been  called  upon  to  feel.  They  show  how  imagina- 
tion and  philosophy  can  be  woven  into  practical  wisdom. 
Such  are  the  writings  of  Bacon.  His  lucid  order,  his 
grasp  of  the  subject,  the  comprehensiveness  of  his  views, 
his  knowledge  of  mankind— the  greatest  perhaps  that  has 
ever  been  distinctly  given  out  by  any  uninspired  man — 
the  practical  nature  of  his  purposes,  and  his  respect  for 
anything  of  human  interest,  render  Bacon's  words  un- 
rivaled in  their  fitness  to  form  the  best  men  for  the  con- 
duct of  the  highest  affairs. 

It  is  not,  however,  so  much  the  thing  studied,  as  the 
manner  of  studying  it.  Our  student  is  not  intended 
to  become  a  learned  man,  but  a  man  of  business;  not 
'a  full  man/  but  'a  ready  man.'  He  must  be  taught 
to  arrange  and  express  what  he  knows.  For  this  pur- 
pose let  him  employ  himself  in  making  digests,  arrang- 
ing and  classifying  materials,  writing  narratives,  and 
in  deciding  upon  conflicting  evidence.  All  these  ex- 
ercises require  method.  He  must  expect  that  his  early 
attempts  will  be  clumsy ;  he  begins,  perhaps,  by  dividing 
his  subject  in  any  way  that  occurs  to  him,  with  no  other 
view  than  that  of  treating  separate  portions  of  it  sepa- 
rately ;  he  does  not  perceive,  at  first,  what  things  are  of 


EDUCATION  OF  A  MAN  OF  BUSINESS.  81 

one  kind,  and  what  of  another,  and  what  should  be  the 
logical  order  of  their  following.  But  from  such  rude 
beginnings,  method  is  developed;  and  there  is  hardly 
any  degree  of  toil  for  which  he  would  not  be  compen- 
sated by  such  a  result.  He  will  have  a  sure  reward  in 
the  clearness  of  his  own  views,  and  in  the  facility  of 
explaining  them  to  others.  People  bring  their  atten- 
tion to  the  man  who  gives  them  most  profit  for  it ;  and 
this  will  be  one  who  is  a  master  of  method. 

Our  student  should  begin  soon  to  cultivate  a  fluency 
in  writing— I  do  not  mean  a  flow  of  words,  but  a  habit 
of  expressing  his  thoughts  with  accuracy,  with  brevity, 
and  with  readiness;  which  can  be  acquired  only  by 
practice  early  in  life.  You  find  persons  who,  from 
neglect  in  this  part  of  their  education,  can  express  them- 
selves briefly  and  accurately,  but  only  after  much  care 
and  labor.  And  again  you  meet  with  others  who  cannot 
express  themselves  accurately,  although  they  have 
method  in  their  thoughts,  and  can  write  with  readiness ; 
but  they  have  not  been  accustomed  to  look  at  the  pre- 
cise meaning  of  words,  and  such  people  are  apt  to  fall 
into  the  common  error  of  indulging  in  a  great  many 
words,  as  if  it  were  from  a  sort  of  hope  that  some  of 
them  might  be  to  the  purpose. 

In  the  style  of  a  man  of  business  nothing  is  to  be 
aimed  at  but  plainness  and  precision.  For  instance, 
a  close  repetition  of  the  same  word  for  the  same  thing 
need  not  be  avoided.  The  aversion  to  such  repetitions 
may  be  carried  too  far  in  all  kinds  of  writing.  In 
literature,  however,  you  are  seldom  brought  to  account 
for  misleading  people ;  but  in  business  you  may  soon  be 
6 


82  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

called  upon  to  pay  the  penalty  for  having  shunned  the 
word  which  would  exactly  have  expressed  your  meaning. 

I  cannot  conclude  this  essay  better  than  by  endeavor- 
ing to  describe  what  sort  of  person  a  consummate  man 
of  business  should  be. 

He  should  be  able  to  fix  his  attention  on  details,  and 
be  ready  to  give  every  kind  of  argument  a  hearing. 
This  will  not  encumber  him,  for  he  must  have  been 
practiced  beforehand  in  the  exercise  of  his  intellect,  and 
be  strong  in  principles.  One  man  collects  materials 
together,  and  there  they  remain,  a  shapeless  heap; 
another,  possessed  of  method,  can  arrange  what  he  has 
collected;  but  such  a  man  as  I  would  describe,  by  the 
aid  of  principles,  goes  farther,  and  builds  with  his 
materials. 

He  should  be  courageous.  The  courage,  however, 
required  in  civil  affairs,  is  that  which  belongs  rather  to 
the  able  commander  than  to  the  mere  soldier.  But  any 
kind  of  courage  is  serviceable. 

Besides  a  stout  heart,  he  should  have  a  patient  tem- 
perament and  a  vigorous  but  disciplined  imagination; 
and  then  he  will  plan  boldly,  and  with  large  extent  of 
view,  execute  calmly,  and  not  be  stretching  out  his  hand 
for  things  not  yet  within  his  grasp.  He  will  let  oppor- 
tunities grow  before  his  eyes,  until  they  are  ripe  to  be 
seized.  He  will  think  steadily  over  possible  failure,  in 
order  to  provide  a  remedy  or  a  retreat.  There  will  be 
the  strength  of  repose  about  him. 

He  must  have  a  deep  sense  of  responsibility.  He 
must  believe  in  the  power  and  vitality  of  truth,  and  in 
all  he  does  or  says*  should  be  anxious  to  express  as  much 
truth  as  possible. 


EDUCATION  OF  A  MAN  OF  BUSINESS.  83 

His  feeling  of  responsibility  and  love  of  truth  will 
almost  inevitably  endow  him  with  diligence,  accuracy 
and  discreetness— those  commonplace  requisites  for  a 
good  man  of  business,  without  which  all  the  rest  may 
never  come  to  be  ' translated  into  action.' 


Our  Judgments  of  Other  Men 


Of  all  the  sensible  things  lawyers  have 
said  it  is  hard  to  find  a  prettier  truth  than 
was  said  by  Mr.  Choate:  'There  is  not  half 
so  much  naughtiness  as  people  believe. 
There  is  a  general  conspiracy  to  believe 
that  certain  circumstances  indicate  some- 
thing terrible  because  something  terrible 
has  at  sometime  accompanied  these  circum- 
stances. But  circumstances  constantly  oc- 
cur without  the  crime  and  reputations  are 
blasted  by  precedence. 

There  is  probably  no  single  function 
which  men  are  in  the  habit  of  exercising 
with  less  sense  of  responsibility  than  that 
of  judging  other  men.  The  conversation 
which  one  hears  day  by  day  is  only  the  ex- 
plicit or  implicit  judgements  upon  others, 
the  criticisms  of  actions  and  of  habits,  sug- 
gested changes  in  management  of  affairs, 
with  downright  and  often  relentless  con- 
demnation. The  men  are  extremely  few  who 
do  not  habitually,  although  in  many  cases 
without  malice,  pass  judgment  upon  their 
fellows,  being  themselves  entirely  incompe- 
tent judges  for  lack  of  knowledge  of  the 
facts  in  the  case.' 


Our  Judgments  of  Other  Men 


I N  forming  these  lightly,  we  wrong  ourselves,  and  those 
whom  we  judge.  In  scattering  such  things  abroad 
we  endow  our  unjust  thoughts  with  a  life  which  we  can- 
not take  away,  and  become  false  witnesses  to  pervert  the 
judgments  of  the  world  in  general.  Who  does  not  feel 
that  to  describe  with  fidelity  the  least  portion  of  the  en- 
tangled nature  that  is  within  him  would  be  no  easy 
matter  ?  And  yet  the  same  man  who  feels  this,  and  who, 
perhaps,  would  be  ashamed  of  talking  at  hazard  about 
the  properties  of  a  flower,  of  a  weed,  of  some  figure  in 
geometry,  will  put  forth  his  guesses  about  the  character 
of  his  brother-man,  as  if  he  had  the  fullest  authority  for 
all  that  he  was  saying. 

But  perhaps  we  are  not  wont  to  make  such  rash  re- 
marks ourselves:  we  are  only  pleased  to  receive  them 
with  the  most  obliging  credence  from  the  lips  of  any  per- 
son we  may  chance  to  meet  with.  Such  credulity  is 
anything  but  blameless.  We  cannot  think  too  seriously 
of  the  danger  of  taking  upon  trust  these  off-hand  say- 
ings, and  of  the  positive  guilt  of  uttering  them  as  if  they 
were  our  own,  or  had  been  assayed  by  our  observation. 
How  much  we  should  be  ashamed  if  we  knew  the  slight 
grounds  of  some  of  those  uncharitable  judgments  to 
which  we  lend  the  influence  of  our  name  by  repeating 


88  THE   TRANSACTION  OP  BUSINESS. 

them!  And  even  if  we  repeat  such  things  only  as  we 
have  good  reason  to  believe  in,  we  should  still  be  in  no 
hurry  to  put  them  forward,  especially  if  they  are  sen- 
tences of  condemnation.  There  is  a  maxim  of  this  kind 
which  Thomas  a  Kempis  has  given  with  all  the  force  of 
expression  that  it  merits.  'A  part  of  this  (prudence) 
is  not  to  believe  anything  and  everything  that  men  say ; 
and  not  to  be  in  a  hurry  to  pour  into  the  ears  of  others 
what  you  hear,  or  even  what  you  believe/ 

There  are  certain  things  quite  upon  the  surface  of  a 
man's  character:  there  are  certain  obvious  facts  in  any 
man's  conduct:  and  there  are  persons  who,  being  very 
much  before  the  world,  offer  plenty  of  material  for 
judging  about  them.  Such  circumstances  as  these  may 
fairly  induce  you  to  place  credence  in  a  general  opinion, 
which,  however,  you  have  no  means  of  verifying  in  any 
way  for  yourself :  but  in  no  case  should  you  suffer  your- 
self to  be  carried  away  at  once  by  the  current  sayings 
about  men's  characters  and  conduct.  If  you  do,  you  are 
helping  to  form  a  mob.  Consider  what  these  sayings 
are :  how  seldom  they  embody  the  character  discussed ;  or 
go  far  to  exhaust  the  question,  if  it  is  one  of  conduct. 
It  is  well  if  they  describe  a  part  with  faithfulness,  or 
give  indications  from  which  a  shrewd  and  impartial 
thinker  may  deduce  some  true  conclusions.  Again,  these 
sayings  may  be  true  in  themselves,  but  the  prominence 
given  to  them  may  lead  to  very  false  impressions.  Be- 
sides, how  many  of  them  must  be  formed  upon  the 
opinion  of  a  few  persons,  and  those,  perhaps,  forward 
thinkers. 

You  feel  that  you  yourself  would  be  liable  to  make 
mistakes  of  all  kinds  if  you  had  to  form  an  independent 


OUR  JUDGMENTS  OF  OTHER  MEN.  89 

judgment  in  the  matter :  do  not  too  readily  suppose  that 
the  general  opinions  you  hear  are  free  from  such  mis- 
takes merely  because  they  are  made,  or  appear  to  you  to 
be  made,  by  a  great  many  people. 

If  we  come  to  analyze  the  various  opinions  we  hear  of 
men's  character  and  conduct,  there  must  be  many  which 
are  formed  wrongly,  though  sincerely,  either  from  im- 
perfect information,  or  erroneous  reasoning.  There  will 
be  others  which  are  the  simple  result  of  the  prejudices 
and  passions  of  the  persons  judging,  of  their  humours, 
and  sometimes  even  of  their  ingenuity.  There  will  be 
others  grounded  on  total  misrepresentations  which  arise 
from  imperfect  hearing,  or  from  some  entire  mistake,  or 
from  a  report  being  made  by  a  person  who  understood  so 
little  of  the  matter  that  it  was  not  possible  for  him  to 
convey,  with  anything  like  accuracy,  what  he  heard 
about  it.  Then  there  are  the  careless  things  which  are 
said  in  general  conversation,  but  which  often  have  as 
much  apparent  weight  as  if  they  had  been  well  consid- 
ered. Sometimes  these  various  causes  are  combined ; 
and  the  result  is,  that  an  opinion  of  some  man's  charac- 
ter and  conduct  gets  abroad  which  is  formed  after  a 
wrong  method,  by  prejudiced  persons,  upon  a  false 
statement  of  facts,  respecting  a  matter  which  they  can- 
not possibly  understand;  and  this  is  then  left  to  be  in- 
flated by  Folly,  and  blown  about  by  Idleness. 

There  is  an  excellent  passage  in  Wollaston's  Religion 
of  Nature  upon  this  subject,  where  he  says,  'The  good 
or  bad  repute  of  men  depends  in  a  great  measure  upon 
mean  people,  who  carry  their  stories  from  family  to 
family,  and  propagate  them  very  fast :  like  little  insects, 


90  THE  TRANSACTION   OP  BUSINESS. 

which  lay  apace,  and  the  less  the  faster.  There  are  few, 
very  few,  who  have  the  opportunity  and  the  will  and 
the  ability  to  represent  things  truly.  Besides  the  matters 
of  fact  themselves,  there  are  many  circumstances  which, 
before  sentence  is  passed,  ought  to  be  known  and 
weighed,  and  yet  scarce  ever  can  be  known,  but  to  the 
person  himself  who  is  concerned.  He  may  have  other 
views,  and  another  sense  of  things,  than  his  judges  have : 
and  what  he  understands,  what  he  feels,  what  he  intends, 
may  be  a  secret  confined  to  his  own  breast.  Or  perhaps 
the  censurer,  notwithstanding  this  kind  of  men  talk  as  if 
they  were  infallible,  may  be  mistaken  himself  in  his  opin- 
ion and  judge  that  to  be  wrong  which  in  truth  is  right. ' 
Few  people  have  imagination  enough  to  enter  into  the 
delusions  of  others,  or  indeed  to  look  at  the  actions  of 
any  other  person  with  any  prejudices  but  their  own. 
Perhaps,  however,  it  would  be  nearer  the  truth  to  say 
that  few  people  are  in  the  habit  of  employing  their  im- 
agination in  the  service  of  charity.  Most  persons  require 
its  magic  aid  to  gild  their  castle  in  the  air;  to  conduct 
them  along  those  fancied  triumphal  processions  in  which 
they  themselves  play  so  conspicuous  a  part;  to  conquer 
enemies  for  them  without  battles;  and  to  make  them 
virtuous  without  effort.  This  is  what  they  want  their 
imagination  for:  they  cannot  spare  it  for  any  little  er- 
rand of  charity.  And  sometimes  when  men  do  think 
charitably,  they  are  afraid  to  speak  out,  for  fear  of  being 
considered  stupid  or  credulous. 

We  have  been  considering  the  danger  of  adopting 
current  sayings  about  men's  character  and  conduct;  but 
suppose  we  consider,  in  detail,  the  difficulty  of  forming 


OUR  JUDGMENTS  OF  OTHER  MEN.  91 

an  original  opinion  on  these  matters,  especially  if  we 
have  not  a  personal  knowledge  of  the  men  of  whom  we 
speak.  In  the  first  place,  we  seldom  know  with  sufficient 
exactness  the  facts  upon  which  we  judge,  and  a  little 
thing  may  make  a  great  difference  when  we  come  to 
investigate  motives.  But  the  report  of  a  transaction 
sometimes  represents  the  real  facts  no  better  than  the 
labored  variation  does  the  simple  air;  which,  amidst 
so  many  shakes  and  flourishes,  might  not  be  recognized 
even  by  the  person  who  composed  it.  .  Then,  again,  how 
can  we  insure  that  we  rightly  interpret  those  actions 
which  we  exactly  know?  Perhaps  one  of  the  first  mo- 
tives that  we  look  for  is  self-interest,  when  we  want  to 
explain  an  action;  but  we  have  scarcely  ever  such  a 
knowledge  of  the  nature  and  fortunes  of  another,  as  to 
be  able  to  decide  what  is  his  interest,  much  less  what  it 
may  appear  to  him  to  be,  besides,  a  man's  fancies,  his 
envy,  his  wilfulness,  everyday  interfere  with,  and  over- 
ride his  interests.  He  will  know  this  himself,  and  will 
often  try  to  conceal  it  by  inventing  motives  of  self- 
interest  to  account  for  his  doing  what  he  has  a  mind 
to  do. 

It  is  well  to  be  thoroughly  impressed  with  a  sense  of 
the  difficulty  of  judging  about  others;  still,  judge  we 
must,  and  sometimes  very  hastily ;  the  purposes  of  life 
require  it.  We  have,  however,  more  and  better  mate- 
rials, sometimes,  than  we  are  aware  of;  we  must  not 
imagine  that  they  are  always  deep-seated  and  recondite— 
they  often  lie  upon  the  surface.  Indeed,  the  primary 
character  of  a  man  is  especially  discernible  in  trifles, 
for  then  he  acts,  as  it  were,  almost  unconsciously.  It  is 


92  THE  TRANSACTION  OP  BUSINESS. 

upon  the  method  of  observing  and  testing  these  things 
that  a  just  knowledge  of  individual  men  in  great  meas- 
ure depends.  You  may  learn  more  of  a  person  even 
by  a  little  converse  with  him  than  by  a  faithful  outline 
of  his  history.  The  most  important  of  his  actions  may 
be  anything  but  the  most  significant  of  the  man,  for 
they  are  likely  to  be  the  results  of  many  things  besides 
his  nature.  To  understand  that,  I  doubt  whether  you 
might  not  learn  more  from  a  good  portrait  of  him  than 
from  two  or  three  of  the  most  prominent  actions  of  his 
life.  Indeed,  if  men  did  not  express  much  of  their 
nature  in  their  manners,  appearance  and  general  bear- 
ing, we  should  be  at  a  sad  loss  to  make  up  our  minds 
how  to  deal  with  each  other. 

In  judging  of  others,  it  is  important  to  distinguish 
those  parts  of  the  character  and  intellect  which  are 
easily  discernible  from  those  which  require  much  obser- 
vation. In  the  intellect,  we  soon  perceive  whether  a 
man  has  wit,  acuteness,  or  logical  power.  It  is  not  easy 
to  discover  whether  he  has  judgment.  And  it  requires 
some  study  of  the  man  to  ascertain  whether  he  has  prac- 
tical wisdom ;  which,  indeed,  is  a  result  of  high  moral,  as 
well  as  intellectual,  qualities. 

In  the  moral  nature,  we  soon  detect  selfishness,  ego- 
tism, and  exaggeration.  Carelessness  about  truth  is  soon 
found  out;  you  see  it  in  a  thousand  little  things.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  very  difficult  to  come  to  a  right  con- 
clusion about  a  man's  temper,  until  you  have  seen  a 
great  deal  of  him.  Of  his  tastes,  some  will  lie  on  the 
surface,  others  not;  for  there  is  a  certain  reserve  about 
most  people  in  speaking  of  the  things  they  like  best. 
Again,  it  is  always  a  hard  matter  to  understand  any 


OUR  JUDGMENTS  OF  OTHER  MEN.  93 

man's  feelings.  Nations  differ  in  their  modes  of  ex- 
pressing feelings,  and  how  much  more  individual  men! 

There  are  certain  cases  in  which  we  are  peculiarly 
liable  to  err  in  our  judgments  of  others.  Thus,  I  think, 
we  are  all  disposed  to  dislike  in  a  manner  dispropor- 
tionate to  their  demerits,  those  who  offend  us  by  pre- 
tension of  any  kind.  "We  are  apt  to  fancy  that  they 
despise  us;  whereas,  all  the  while,  perhaps,  they  are 
only  courting  our  admiration.  There  are  people  who 
wear  the  worst  part  of  their  characters  outwards:  they 
offend  our  vanity;  they  rouse  our  fears;  and  under 
these  influences  we  omit  to  consider  how  often  a  scornful 
man  is  tender-hearted,  and  an  assuming  man,  one  who 
longs  to  be  popular  and  to  please. 

Then  there  are  characters  of  such  a  different  kind 
from  our  own,  that  we  are  without  the  means  of  measur- 
ing and  appreciating  them.  A  man  who  has  no  humour, 
how  difficult  for  him  to  understand  one  who  has ! 

But  of  all  the  errors  of  judging  of  others,  some  of  the 
worst  are  made  in  judging  of  those  who  are  nearest  to 
us.  They  think  that  we  have  entirely  made  up  our 
minds  about  them,  and  are  apt  to  show  us  that  sort  of 
behaviour  only  which  they  know  we  expect.  Perhaps, 
too,  they  fear  us,  or  they  are  convinced  that  we  do  not 
and  cannot  sympathize  with  them.  And  so  we  move 
about  in  a  mist,  and  talk  of  phantoms  as  if  they  were 
living  men,  and  think  that  we  understand  those  who 
never  interchange  any  discourse  with  us  but  the  talk  of 
the  market-place ;  or  if  they  do,  it  is  only  as  players  who 
are  playing  a  part  set  down  in  certain  words,  to  be  eked 
out  with  the  stage  gestures  for  each  affection,  who  would 
deem  themselves  little  else  than  mad  if  they  were  to  say 
out  to  us  anything  of  their  own. 


How  to  Win  Fortune 


ANDREW    CARNEGIE 


Do  not  hesitate  to  engage  in  any  legiti- 
mate business,  for  there  is  no  business  in 
America,  I  do  not  care  what,  which  will  not 
yield  a  fair  profit  if  it  receive  the  unremit- 
ting, exclusive  attention,  and  all  the  capital 
of  capable,  industrious  men. 

Every  business  will  have  its  seasons  of 
depression — years  during  which  manufac- 
turers and  merchants  are  severely  tried — 
but  every  legitimate  business  producing  or 
dealing  in  an  article  which  man  requires  is 
bound  in  time  to  be  fairly  profitable,  if  prop- 
erly conducted. 

And  here  is  the  prime  condition  of  suc- 
cess, the  great  secret:  concentrate  your  en- 
ergy, thought  and  capital  upon  the  business 
in  which  you  are  engaged.  Having  begun 
in  one  line,  resolve  to  fight  it  out  on  that 
line,  to  lead  in  it;  to  adopt  every  improve- 
ment; to  have  the  best  machinery,  and 
know  the  most  about  it. — CARNEGIE. 


How  to  Win  Fortune 


T  ABOUR  is  divided  into  two  great  armies— the  agri- 
cultural and  the  industrial.  In  these  diverse  forces 
are  in  operation.  In  the  former  everything  tends  to  a 
further  distribution  of  land  among  the  many ;  in  the  lat- 
ter everything  tends  to  a  concentration  of  business  in  the 
hands  of  the  few.  One  of  the  two  great  fallacies  upon 
which  'Progress  and  Poverty'— Mr.  George's  book- 
is  founded,  is  that  the  land  is  getting  more  and  more  into 
the  hands  of  the  few.  Now  the  only  source  from  which 
Mr.  George  could  obtain  correct  information  upon  this 
point  is  the  census;  and  this  tells  us  that  in  1850  the 
average  extent  of  farms  in  the  United  States  was  203 
acres;  in  1860,  199  acres;  in  1870,  153  acres,  and  that 
in  1880  it  was  still  further  reduced  to  134  acres.  The 
reason  is  obvious  for  this  rapid  distribution  of  the  land. 
The  farmer  who  cultivates  a  small  farm  by  his  own  la- 
bour is  able  to  drive  out  of  the  field  the  ambitious  cap- 
italist who  attempts  to  farm  on  a  large  scale  with  the 
labour  of  others.  In  Great  Britain  nothing  has  been 
more  significant  than  that  the  tillers  of  small  farms  have 
passed  through  the  agricultural  depression  there  far  bet- 
ter than  those  who  cultivated  large  farms.  So  in  both 
countries  we  have  proof  that  under  the  free  play  of 


From  The  New  York  Tribune,  April  13,  1890. 
7 


98  THE   TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

equal  laws  land  is  becoming  more  and  more  divided 
among  the  masses  of  the  people.  In  the  whole  range  of 
social  question  no  fact  is  more  important  than  this,  and 
nothing  gives  the  thoughtful  student  greater  satisfaction. 
The  triumph  of  the  small  proprietor  over  the  large  pro- 
prietor insures  the  growth  and  maintenance  of  that  ele- 
ment in  society  upon  which  civilization  can  most  securely 
depend,  for  there  is  no  force  in  a  nation  so  conservative 
of  what  is  good,  so  fair,  so  virtuous,  as  a  race  of  men  who 
till  the  soil  they  own.  Happily  for  mankind  experience 
proves  that  man  cannot  work  more  soil  profitably  than 
he  can  till  himself  with  the  aid  of  his  own  family. 

When  we  turn  to  the  other  army  of  labour— the  in- 
dustrial— we  are  obliged  to  confess  that  it  is  swayed  by 
the  opposite  law,  which  tends  to  concentrate  manufac- 
turing and  business  affairs  generally  in  a  few  vast  estab- 
lishments. The  fall  in  prices  of  manufactured  articles 
has  been  startling.  Never  were  the  principal  articles  of 
consumption  so  low  as  they  are  to-day.  This  cheapen- 
ing process  is  made  possible  only  by  concentration.  "We 
find  1,700  watches  per  day  turned  out  by  one  company, 
and  watches  are  sold  for  a  few  dollars  apiece.  We  have 
mills  making  many  thousand  yards  of  calico  per  day,  and 
this  necessary  article  is  to  be  had  for  a  few  cents  a  yard. 
Manufacturers  of  steel  make  2,500  tons  per  day,  and 
four  pounds  of  finished  steel  are  sold  for  5  cents.  And 
so  on  through  the  entire  range  of  industries.  Divide  the 
huge  factories  into  smaller  establishments,  and  it  will  be 
found  impossible  to  manufacture  some  of  the  articles  at 
all,  the  success  of  the  process  being  often  dependent  on 
its  being  operated  upon  a  large  scale,  while  the  cost  of 
such  articles  as  could  be  produced  in  small  establish- 


HOW  TO  WIN  FORTUNE.  99 

ments  would  be  two  or  three  times  their  present  prices. 
There  does  not  appear  to  be  any  counteracting  force  to 
this  law  of  concentration  in  the  industrial  world.  On 
the  contrary,  the  active  forces  at  work  seem  to  demand 
greater  and  greater  output,  or  turn-over,  from  each  es- 
tablishment in  order  that  the  minimum  of  cost  should  be 
reached.  Hence  comes  the  rapid  and  continuous  in- 
crease of  the  capital  of  manufacturing  and  commercial 
concerns,  five,  ten,  fifteen,  and  even  twenty  millions  be- 
ing sometimes  massed  in  one  corporation. 

HAS  THE  YOUNG  MAN  NOW  A  CHANCE  ? 

This  has  given  rise  to  a  complaint  which  is  often 
heard,  but  which  I  hope  to  show  has  no  foundation.  The 
young  practical  man  points  to  these,  and  says  to  him- 
self: 'It  is  no  longer  possible  for  our  class,  without 
capital,  to  rise  beyond  the  position  of  employes  upon 
salaries.  There  is  a  lion  in  the  path  which  leads  to  inde- 
pendent commands  or  to  partnership,  and  this  lion  is 
the  hugh  establishments  already  existing,  which  are  an 
impassable  barrier  to  our  advancement.'  The  man  en- 
gaged in  the  agricultural  army,  as  we  have  seen,  has 
nothing  to  fear  from  capital.  With  a  small  sum,  which 
is  not  very  difficult  for  him  to  save  or  borrow,  he  can 
begin  farming,  the  only  competition  with  which  he  has 
to  contend  being  that  of  others  of  his  own  class  situated 
like  himself.  It  is  certainly  more  difficult  for  a  mechanic 
or  practical  man  to  establish  a  new  business,  or  to  win 
partnership  in  one  that  exists,  than  it  is  for  the  young 
farmer  to  begin  his  business;  yet  the  difficulties  are  not 
insuperable,  nor  greater  than  have  hitherto  existed. 
They  are  such  as  to  stimulate  the  ambitious ;  and  this  is 


100  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

always  to  be  taken  into  account,  that  if  the  race  in  the 
industrial  and  business  world  be  harder  to  win,  the  prize 
is  infinitely  greater. 

Before  considering  the  prospects  of  the  mechanic  in 
the  industrial,  of  the  clerk  in  the  mercantile,  commercial 
and  financial  worlds,  let  me  show  that  no  classes  other 
than  these  two  have  had  much  to  do  with  establishing 
the  factories,  business  houses  and  financial  institutions 
which  are  best  known  in  the  United  States  to-day.  And 
first,  as  to  the  part  of  trained  mechanics.  I  select  the 
best-known  industrial  establishments  in  each  depart- 
ment, many  of  them  the  most  extensive  works  of  their 
kind  and  of  world-wide  reputation :  Baldwin  Works, 
for  locomotives ;  Sellers  &  Co. ,  Bement  &  Dougherty,  for 
mechanical  tools;  Disston's  Works,  for  saws;  works  of 
the  Messrs.  Dobson,  and  of  Thomas  Dolan,  Philadelphia, 
and  Gary,  of  Baltimore,  textile  fabrics;  Fairbanks,  for 
scales ;  Studebakers,  for  wagons,  who  count  their  wagons 
by  the  acre ;  Pullman,  of  Chicago ,  Allison,  Philadelphia, 
for  cars;  Washburn  &  Moen,  and  Cleveland  Rolling 
Mills,  steel  wire,  etc. ;  Bartlet,  iron  founder,  Baltimore ; 
Sloanes,  also  Higgins,  carpets;  Westinghouse,  electrical 
apparatus;  Peter  Henderson  &  Co.,  and  Landreth  &  Co., 
seeds;  Harper  Bros.,  publishers,  Babbitt,  for  Babbitt's 
metal ;  Otis  Works,  Cleveland,  boiler  steel ;  the  Reming- 
ton Works,  and  Colt's  Works,  Hartford,  firearms;  Sin- 
ger Company,  Howe,  Grover,  sewing  machines;  McCor- 
mick  Works,  of  Chicago,  Balls,  of  Canton,  and  Walter 
A.  Woods,  for  agricultural  implements ;  steamship  build- 
ing, Roach,  Cramp,  Neafie,  on  the  Atlantic ;  Scott  on  the 
Pacific;  Parkhurst,  Wheeler,  Kirby,  McDugal,  Craig, 
Coffinberry,  Wallace,  the  leading  officials  of  shipbuilding 


HOW  TO  WIN  FORTUNE.  101 

companies  on  our  great  lakes;  horseshoes,  Burdens;  At- 
terbury  Works,  for  glass;  Groetzingers,  tanning;  Ames 
Works,  for  shovels;  Steinway,  Chickering  and  Knabe, 
pianos.  , 

Everyone  of  these  great  works  was  founded  and  man- 
aged by  mechanics,  men  who  served  their  apprentice- 
ship. The  list  could  be  greatly  extended,  and  if  we  were 
to  include  those  which  were  created  by  men  who  en- 
tered life  as  office-boys  or  clerks,  we  should  embrace  al- 
most every  famous  manufacturing  concern  in  the  coun- 
try. Edison,  for  instance,  was  a  telegraph  operator. 
Corliss,  of  Corliss  engine;  Cheney,  Cheney  silk;  Eoeb- 
ling,  of  wire  fame ;  Spreckels,  in  sugar  refining— all  and 
many  more  captains  of  industry — were  poor  boys  with 
natural  aptitude,  to  whom  a  regular  apprenticeship  was 
scarcely  necessary. 

In  the  mercantile,  commercial  and  financial  branches 
of  business,  which  are  all  under  the  law  which  drives 
business  affairs  into  large  concerns,  the  poor  clerk  takes 
the  place  of  the  trained  mechanic  in  the  industrial 
world.  Claflin's,  Jaffray's,  Sloan's,  the  Lords,  the  Tay- 
lors, the  Phelpses,  the  Dodges,  the  gigantic  houses  of 
Jordan  &  Marsh  in  Boston ;  of  Field  in  Chicago ;  Barr  in 
St.  Louis ;  Wanamaker  in  Philadelphia ;  Meldrum  &  An- 
derson, Buffalo;  Newcomb,  Endicott  &  Co.,  Detroit; 
Taylor,  Cleveland;  Daniels  &  Fisher,  Denver;  Home, 
and  Campbell  &  Dick,  Pittsburg ;  all  these  and  the  corre- 
sponding houses  throughout  the  country,  as  far  as  I  am 
able  to  trace  their  history,  have  the  same  story  to  tell. 
Wanamaker,  Claflin,  Jordan,  Lord,  Field,  Barr  and  the 
others,  all  poor  boys  in  the  store,  and  Phelps  and  Dodge, 
both  poor  clerks. 


102  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

In  banking  and  finance,  it  is  an  oft  repeated  story 
that  our  Stanfords,  Rockefellers,  Goulds,  Sages,  Fields, 
Dillons,  Seligmans,  Wilsons  and  Huntingtons  came  from 
the  ranks.  The  millionaires  who  are  in  active  control 
started  as  poor  boys,  and  were  trained  in  that  sternest 
but  most  efficient  of  all  schools— poverty. 

WHERE   IS   THE    COLLEGE-MADE    MAN? 

I  asked  a  city  banker  to  give  me  a  few  names  of  presi- 
dents and  vice-presidents  and  cashiers  of  our  great  New 
York  City  banks  who  had  begun  as  boys  or  clerks.  He 
sent  me  thirty-six  names,  and  wrote  he  would  send  me 
more  next  day.  I  cannot  take  the  reader's  time  with  a 
complete  list,  but  here  are  a  few  of  the  best  known: 
Williams,  president  Chemical  Bank;  Watson  &  Lang, 
Bank  of  Montreal ;  Tappen,  president  Gallatin  National ; 
Brinkerhoff,  president  Butchers'  and  Drovers'  Bank; 
Clark,  vice-president  American  Exchange ;  Jewitt,  presi- 
dent Irving  National;  Harris,  president  Nassau  Bank; 
Crane,  president  Shoe  and  Leather  Bank;  Nash,  presi- 
dent Corn  Exchange  Bank;  Cannon,  president  Chase 
National ;  Cannon,  vice-president  Fourth  National ; 
Montague,  president  Second  National;  Baker,  president 
First  National;  Hamilton,  vice-president  Bowery  Bank, 
and  so  on. 

The  absence  of  the  college  graduate  in  this  list  should 
be  deeply  weighed.  I  have  inquired  and  searched  every- 
where in  all  quarters,  but  find  small  trace  of  him  as  the 
leader  in  affairs,  although  not  seldom  occupying  posi- 
tions of  trust  in  financial  institutions.  Nor  is  this  sur- 
prising. The  prize-takers  have  too  many  years  the  start 
of  the  graduate,  they  have  entered  for  the  race  invari- 


HOW  TO  WIN  FORTUNE.  103 

ably  in  their  teens— in  the  most  valuable  of  all  the  years 
for  learning— from  fourteen  to  twenty;  and  while  the 
college  student  has  been  learning  a  little  about  the  bar- 
barous and  petty  squabbles  of  a  far-distant  past,  or  try- 
ing to  master  languages  which  are  dead,  such  knowledge 
as  seems  adapted  for  life  upon  another  planet  than  this, 
as  far  as  business  affairs  are  concerned — the  future  cap- 
tain of  industry  is  hotly  engaged  in  the  school  of  expe- 
rience obtaining  the  very  knowledge  required  for  his 
future  triumphs. 

I  do  not  speak  of  the  effect  of  college  education  upon 
young  men  training  for  the  learned  professions,  for 
which  it  is,  up  to  a  certain  point,  almost  indispensable 
in  our  day  for  the  average  youth,  but  the  almost  total 
absence  of  the  graduate  from  high  position  in  the  busi- 
ness world  seems  to  justify  the  conclusion  that  college 
education  as  it  exists  seems  almost  fatal  to  success  in  that 
domain.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  salaried  officials  are  not 
in  a  strict  sense  in  business— a  captain  of  industry  is  one 
who  makes  his  all  in  his  business  and  depends  upon  suc- 
cess for  compensation.  It  is  in  this  field  that  the  grad- 
uate has  little  chance,  entering  at  twenty,  against  the 
boy  who  swept  the  office  or  who  begins  as  shipping  clerk 
at  fourteen.  The  facts  prove  this.  There  are  some  in- 
stances of  the  sons  of  business  men,  graduates  of  col- 
leges, who  address  themselves  to  a  business  life  and  suc- 
ceed in  managing  a  business  already  created,  but  even 
these  are  few  compared  with  those  who  fail  in  keeping 
the  fortune  received. 

There  has  come,  however,  in  recent  years,  the  poly- 
technic and  scientific  school,  or  course  of  study,  for 
boys,  which  is  beginning  to  show  most  valuable  fruits  in 


104  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

the  manufacturing  branch.  The  trained  mechanic  of 
the  past,  who  has,  as  we  have  seen,  hitherto  carried  off 
most  of  the  honours  in  our  industrial  works,  is  now  to 
meet  a  rival  in  the  scientifically  educated  youth,  who 
will  push  him  hard — very  hard  indeed.  Three  of  the 
largest  steel  manufacturing  concerns  in  the  world  are 
already  under  the  management  of  three  young  educated 
men — students  of  these  schools  who  left  theory  at  school 
for  practice  in  the  works,  while  yet  in  their  teens. 
Walker,  Illinois  Steel  Company,  Chicago;  Schwab, 
Edgar  Thompson  Works;  Potter,  Homestead  Steel 
Works,  Pittsburg,  are  types  of  the  new  product— not 
one  of  them  yet  thirty.  Most  of  the  chiefs  of  depart- 
ments under  them  are  of  the  same  class.  Such  young 
educated  men  have  one  important  advantage  over  the 
apprenticed  mechanic— they  are  open-minded  and  with- 
out prejudice.  The  scientific  attitude  of  mind,  that  of 
the  searcher  after  truth,  renders  them  receptive  of  new 
ideas.  Great  and  invaluable  as  the  working  mechanic 
has  been,  and  is  and  will  always  be,  yet  he  is  disposed  to 
adopt  narrow  views  of  affairs,  for  he  is  generally  well 
up  in  years  before  he  comes  into  power.  It  is  different 
with  the  scientifically  trained  boy ;  he  has  no  prejudices, 
and  goes  in  for  the  latest  invention  or  newest  method,  no 
matter  if  another  has  discovered  it.  He  adopts  the  plan 
that  will  beat  the  record  and  discards  his  own  devices  or 
ideas,  which  the  working  mechanic-superintendent  can 
rarely  be  induced  to  do.  Let  no  one,  therefore,  under- 
rate the  advantage  of  education ;  only  it  must  be  educa- 
tion adapted  to  the  end  in  view,  and  must  give  instruc- 
tion bearing  upon  a  man's  career  if  he  is  to  make  his 
way  to  fortune. 


HOW  TO  WIN  FORTUNE.  105 

Thus  in  the  financial,  commercial  and  mercantile 
branches  of  business,  as  in  manufacturing,  we  have  to 
ask,  not  what  place  the  educated  mechanic  and  practical 
men  occupy,  but  what  these  two  types  have  left  for 
others  throughout  the  entire  business  world.  Very 
little,  indeed,  have  they  left. 

In  the  industrial  department  the  trained  mechanic  is 
the  founder  and  manager  of  famous  concerns.  In  the 
mercantile,  commercial  and  financial  it  is  the  poor  office 
boy  who  has  proved  to  be  the  merchant  prince  in  dis- 
guise, who  surely  comes  into  his  heritage.  They  are  the 
winning  classes.  It  is  the  poor  clerk  and  the  working 
mechanic  who  finally  rule  in  every  branch  of  affairs, 
without  capital,  without  family  influence,  and  without 
college  education.  It  is  they  who  have  risen  to  the  top 
and  taken  command,  who  have  abandoned  salaried  posi- 
tions and  boldly  risked  all  in  the  founding  of  a  business. 
College  graduates  will  usually  be  found  under  salaries, 
trusted  subordinates.  Neither  capital,  nor  influence, 
nor  college  learning,  nor  all  combined  have  proved  able 
to  contend  in  business  successfully  against  the  energy 
and  indomitable  will  which  spring  from  all-conquering 
poverty.  Lest  anything  here  said  may  be  construed  as 
tending  to  decry  or  disparage  university  education  let 
me  clearly  state  that  those  addressed  are  the  fortunate 
poor  young  men  who  have  to  earn  a  living;  for  such  as 
can  afford  to  obtain  a  university  degree  and  have  means 
sufficient  to  insure  a  livelihood  the  writer  is  the  last  man 
to  advise  its  rejection — compared  with  which  all  the 
pecuniary  gains  of  the  multi-millionaire  are  dross— but 
for  poor  youth  the  earning  of  a  competence  is  a  duty  and 
duty  done  is  worth  even  more  than  university  education, 


106  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

precious  as  that  is.  Liberal  education  gives  a  man  who 
really  absorbs  it  higher  tastes  and  aims  than  the  acquisi- 
tion of  wealth,  and  a  world  to  enjoy,  into  which  the 
mere  millionaire  cannot  enter ;  to  find,  therefore,  that  it 
is  not  the  best  training  for  business  is  to  prove  its  claim 
to  a  higher  domain.  True  education  can  be  obtained 
outside  of  the  schools ;  genius  is  not  an  indigenous  plant 
in  the  groves  academic— a  wild  flower  found  in  the 
woods  all  by  itself,  needing  no  care  from  society— but 
average  man  needs  universities. 

ARE  CORPORATIONS  TO  DISAPPEAR  ? 

The  young  practical  man  of  to-day  working  at  the 
bench  or  counter,  to  whom  the  fair  goddess,  Fortune,  has 
not  yet  beckoned,  may  be  disposed  to  conclude  that  it  is 
impossible  to  start  business  in  this  age.  There  is  some- 
thing in  that.  It  is,  no  doubt,  infinitely  more  difficult 
to  start  a  new  business  of  any  kind  to-day  than  it  was. 
But  it  is  only  a  difference  in  form,  not  in  substance.  It 
is  infinitely  easier  for  a  young  practical  man  of  ability  to 
obtain  an  interest  in  existing  firms  than  it  has  ever  been. 
The  doors  have  not  closed  upon  ability ;  on  the  contrary 
they  swing  easier  upon  their  hinges.  Capital  is  not 
requisite.  Family  influence,  as  before,  passes  for  noth- 
ing. Keal  ability,  the  capacity  for  doing  things,  never 
was  so  eagerly  searched  for  as  now,  and  never  command- 
ed such  rewards. 

The  law  which  concentrates  the  leading  industries  and 
commercial,  mercantile  and  financial  affairs  in  a  few 
great  factories,  or  firms,  contains  within  itself  another 
law  not  less  imperious.  These  vast  concerns  cannot  be 
successfully  conducted  by  salaried  employes.  No  great 


HOW  -TO  WIN  FORTUNE.  107 

business  of  any  kind  can  score  an  unusually  brilliant, 
and  permanent  success  which  is  not  in  the  hands  of  the 
practical  men  pecuniarily  interested  in  its  results.  In 
the  industrial  world  the  days  of  corporations  seem  likely 
to  come  to  an  end.  It  has  been  necessary  for  me  to 
watch  closely  the  most  of  my  life  the  operations  of  great 
establishments  owned  by  hundreds  of  absent  capitalists, 
and  conducted  by  salaried  officers.  Contrasted  with 
these  I  believe  that  the  partnership  conducted  by  men 
vitally  interested  and  owning  the  works  will  make  satis- 
factory dividends  when  the  corporation  is  embarrassed 
and  scarcely  knows  upon  which  side  the  balance  is  to  be 
at  the  end  of  a  year's  operations.  The  great  dry  goods 
houses  that  interest  their  most  capable  men  in  the  profits 
of  each  department  succeed,  when  those  fail  that  en- 
deavor to  work  with  salaried  men  only.  Even  in  the 
management  of  our  great  hotels,  it  is  found  wise  to  take 
into  partnership  the  principal  men.  In  every  branch  of 
business  this  law  is  at  work,  and  concerns  are  prosper- 
ous, generally  speaking,  just  in  proportion  as  they  suc- 
ceed in  interesting  in  the  profits  a  larger  and  larger  pro- 
portion of  their  ablest  workers.  Co-operation  in  this 
form  is  fast  coming  in  all  great  establishments.  The 
manufacturing  business  that  does  not  have  practical 
manufacturing  partners  had  better  supply  the  omission 
without  delay,  and  probably  the  very  men  required  are 
the  bright  young  mechanics  who  have  distinguished 
themselves  while  working  for  a  few  dollars  per  day,  or 
the  youth  from  the  polytechnic  school.  Instances  con- 
stantly occur  where  the  corporation  unwilling  to  interest 
a  promising  practical  man  loses  his  services,  and  sees  an 
interest  given  him  by  some  able  individual  manufacturer 


108  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

or  commercial  firm  who  are  constantly  on  the  lookout  for 
that  indispensable  article— ability.  It  has  not  hitherto 
been  the  practice  for  corporations  properly  to  reward 
these  embryo  managers,  but  this  they  must  come  to,  if 
they  are  to  stand  the  competition  of  works  operated  by 
those  interested  in  the  profits. 

Corporations,  on  the  other  hand,  as  I  desire  to  point 
out  to  practical  young  men,  have  one  advantage.  Their 
shares  are  sold  freely.  If  a  worker  wishes  to  become  in- 
terested in  any  branch  of  manufacturing  in  America  to- 
day, the  path  is  easy.  For  $50  or  $100  he  can  become  a 
stockholder.  It  is  becoming  more  and  more  common  for 
workers  so  to  invest  their  savings.  There  are  many  well- 
managed  corporations  whose  assets  and  prestige  enable 
them  to  earn  satisfactory  returns,  and  no  better  evidence 
of  capacity  and  of  good  judgment  can  a  workman  give 
to  his  employer  than  that  furnished  by  the  presence  of 
his  name  upon  the  books  as  a  share-holder  in  the  concern. 

Workingmen  have  a  prejudice  against  showing  their 
employers  that  the  wages  they  earn  suffice  to  enable 
them  to  save;  but  this  is  a  mistake.  The  saving  work- 
man is  the  valuable  workman,  and  the  wise  employer 
regards  the  fact  that  he  does  save  as  prima  facie  evi- 
dence that  there  is  something  exceptionally  valuable  in 
him.  It  should  be  the  effort  of  every  incorporation  to 
induce  its  principal  workers  to  invest  their  savings  in 
its  shares.  Only  in  this  way  can  corporations  hope  to 
cope  successfully  with  individual  manufacturers  who 
have  already  discovered  one  of  the  valuable  secrets  of 
unusual  success,  viz. :  to  share  their  profits  with  those 
who  are  most  instrumental  in  producing  them.  The  day 
of  the  absent  capitalist  stockholder,  who  takes  no  inter- 


HOW  TO  WIN  FORTUNE.  109 

est  in  the  operation  of  the  works  beyond  the  receipt  of 
his  dividend,  is  certainly  passing  away.  The  day  of  the 
valuable  active  worker  in  the  industrial  world  is  coming. 
Let,  therefore,  no  young  practical  workman  be  discour- 
aged. On  the  contrary,  let  him  be  cheered.  More  and 
more  it  is  becoming  easier  for  the  mechanic  or  practical 
man  of  real  ability  to  dictate  terms  to  his  employers. 
Where  there  was  one  avenue  of  promotion  there  are  now 
a  dozen.  The  enormous  concern  of  the  future  is  to 
divide  its  profits,  not  among  hundreds  of  idle  capitalists 
who  contribute  nothing  to  its  success,  but  among  hun- 
dreds of  its  ablest  employes,  upon  whose  ability  and 
exertions  success  greatly  depends.  The  capitalist  absent 
stockholder  is  to  be  replaced  by  the  able  and  present 
worker. 

As  to  the  qualification  necessary  for  the  promotion  of 
young  practical  men,  one  cannot  do  better  than  quote 
George  Eliot,  who  put  the  matter  very  pithily:  'I'll 
tell  you  how  I  got  on.  I  kept  my  eyes  and  ears  open, 
and  I  made  my  master's  interest  my  own/ 

The  condition  precedent  for  promotion  is,  that  the 
man  must  first  attract  notice.  He  must  do  something 
unusual  and  especially  must  this  be  beyond  the  strict 
boundary  of  his  duties.  He  must  suggest,  or  save,  or 
perform  some  service  for  his  employer  which  he  could 
not  be  censured  for  not  having  done.  When  he  has  thus 
attracted  the  notice  of  his  immediate  superior,  whether 
that  be  only  the  foreman  of  a  gang,  it  matters  not ;  the 
first  great  step  has  been  taken,  for  upon  his  immediate 
superior  promotion  depends.  How  high  he  climbs  is  his 
own  affair. 

We  often  hear  men  complaining  that  they  get  no 
chance  to  show  their  ability,  and  when  they  do  show 


110  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

ability  that  it  is  not  recognized.  There  is  very  little  in 
this.  Self-interest  compels  the  immediate  superior  to 
give  the  highest  place  under  him  to  the  man  who  can  best 
fill  it,  for  the  officer  is  credited  with  the  work  of  his 
department  as  a  whole.  No  man  can  keep  another  down. 
It  will  be  noticed  that  many  of  the  practical  men  who 
have  earned  fame  and  fortune  have  done  so  through 
holding  on  to  improvements  which  they  have  made.  Im- 
provements are  easily  made  by  practical  men  in  the 
branch  in  which  they  are  engaged  for  they  have  the 
most  intimate  knowledge  of  the  problems  to  be  solved 
there.  It  is  in  this  way  that  many  of  our  valuable  im- 
provements have  come.  The  man  who  has  made  an  im- 
provement should  always  have  an  eye  upon  obtaining 
an  interest  in  the  business  rather  than  increase  of  salary. 
Even  if  the  business  up  to  this  time  has  not  become  very 
prosperous,  if  he  has  the  proper  stuff  in  him,  he  believes 
that  he  could  make  it  so,  and  so  he  could.  All  forms  of 
business  have  their  ups  and  downs.  Seasons  of  depres- 
sion and  buoyancy  succeed  each  other,  one  year  of  great 
profits,  several  years  with  little  or  none.  This  is  a  law 
of  the  business  world,  into  the  reason  of  which  I  need 
not  enter.  Therefore  the  able  young  practical  man 
should  not  have  much  regard  as  to  a  choice  of  the  branch 
of  business.  Any  business  properly  conducted  will  yield 
during  a  period  of  years  a  handsome  return. 

DANGERS  TO  YOUNG  MEN. 

There  are  three  great  rocks  ahead  of  the  practical 
young  man  who  has  his  foot  upon  the  ladder  and  is  be- 
ginning to  rise.  First,  drunkenness,  which  of  course  is 
fatal.  There  is  no  use  in  wasting  time  upon  any  young 


HOW  TO  WIN  FORTUNE.  Ill 

man  who  drinks  liquor,  no  matter  how  exceptional  his 
talents.  Indeed,  the  greater  his  talents  are  the  greater 
the  disappointment  must  be.  The  second  rock  ahead  is 
speculation.  The  business  of  a  speculator  and  that  of  a 
manufacturer  or  a  man  of  affairs,  are  not  only  distinct 
but  incompatible.  To  be  successful  in  the  business 
world,  the  manufacturer's  and  the  merchant's  profits 
only  should  be  sought.  The  manufacturer  should  go 
forward  steadily,  meeting  the  market  price.  When 
there  are  goods  to  sell,  sell  them;  when  supplies  are 
needed,  purchase  them,  without  regard  to  the  market 
price  in  either  case.  I  have  never  known  a  speculative 
manufacturer  or  business  man  who  scored  a  permanent 
success.  He  is  rich  one  day,  bankrupt  the  next.  Be- 
sides this,  the  manufacturer  aims  to  produce  articles, 
and  in  so  doing  to  employ  labour.  This  furnishes  a 
laudable  career.  A  man  in  this  vocation  is  useful  to  his 
kind.  The  merchant  is  usefully  occupied  distributing 
commodities;  the  banker  in  providing  capital.  The 
third  rock  is  akin  to  speculation— indorsing.  Business 
men  require  irregular  supplies  of  money,  at  some 
periods  little,  at  others  enormous  sums.  Others  being 
in  the  same  condition,  there  is  strong  temptation  to 
indorse  mutually.  This  rock  should  be  avoided.  There 
are  emergencies,  no  doubt,  in  which  men  should  help 
their  friends,  but  there  is  a  rule  that  will  keep  one  safe. 
No  man  should  place  his  name  upon  the  obligation  of  an- 
other if  he  has  not  sufficient  to  pay  it  without  detriment 
to  his  own  business.  It  is  dishonest  to  do  so.  Men  are 
trustees  for  those  who  have  trusted  them,  and  the 
creditor  is  entitled  to  all  his  capital  and  credit.  For 
one's  own  firm,  'your  name,  your  fortune,  and  your 


112  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

sacred  honour;'  but  for  others,  no  matter  under  what 
circumstances,  only  such  aid  as  you  can  render  without 
danger  to  your  trust.  It  is  a  safe  rule,  therefore,  to  give 
the  cash  direct  that  you  have  to  spare  for  others  and 
never  your  indorsement  or  guarantee. 

One  great  cause  of  failure  of  young  men  in  business 
is  lack  of  concentration.  They  are  prone  to  seek  outside 
investments.  The  cause  of  many  a  surprising  failure 
lies  in  so  doing.  Every  dollar  of  capital  and  credit, 
every  business  thought,  should  be  concentrated  upon 
the  one  business  in  which  a  man  has  embarked.  He 
should  never  scatter  his  shot.  It  is  a  poor  business  which 
will  not  yield  better  returns  for  increased  capital  than 
any  outside  investment.  No  man  or  set  of  men  or  cor- 
poration can  manage  a  business  man's  capital  as  well  as 
he  can  manage  it  himself.  The  rule,  'Do  not  put  all 
your  eggs  in  one  basket/  does  not  apply  to  a  man's  life 
work.  Put  all  your  eggs  in  one  basket,  and  then  watch 
that  basket,  is  the  true  doctrine — the  most  valuable  rule 
of  all.  While  business  of  all  kinds  has  gone,  and  is  still 
going  rapidly,  into  a  few  vast  concerns,  it  is  nevertheless 
demonstrated  every  day  that  genuine  ability,  interested 
in  the  profits,  is  not  only  valuable  but  indispensable  to 
their  successful  operation.  Through  corporations  whose 
shares  are  sold  daily  upon  the  market ;  through  partner- 
ships that  find  it  necessary  to  interest  their  ablest 
workers ;  through  merchants  who  can  manage  vast  enter- 
prises successfully  only  by  interesting  exceptional 
ability;  in  every  quarter  of  the  business  world,  avenues 
greater  in  number,  wider  in  extent,  easier  of  access  than 
ever  before  existed,  stand  open  to  the  sober,  frugal,  ener- 
getic and  able  mechanic,  to  the  scientifically  educated 


HOW  TO  WIN  FORTUNE.  113 

youth,  to  the  office  boy  and  to  the  clerk— avenues 
through  which  they  can  reap  greater  successes  than  were 
ever  before  within  the  reach  of  these  classes  in  the 
history  of  the  world. 

When,  therefore,  the  young  man,  in  any  position  or 
in  any  business  explains  and  complains  that  he  has  not 
opportunity  to  prove  his  ability  and  to  rise  to  partner- 
ship, the  old  answer  suffices : 

"The  fault,  dear  Brutus,  is  not  in  our  stars, 
But  in  ourselves,  that  we  are  underlings." 


Tactful  Relations  with  Customers 


JOHN    W.    FERGUSON 


ASSISTANT  TO  CONTRACT   AGENT 
CHICAGO  EDISON  COMPANY 


'The  best  advertisement  is  a  pleased  cus- 
tomer. You  may  sell  your  patron  the  best 
goods  the  market  affords,  at  a  price  which 
he  cannot  better,  and  yet  the  whole  of  the 
battle  is  not  won.  There  is  a  seductive 
fellow  across  the  way,  perhaps,  who  hypno- 
tizes his  customers  by  a  gracious  manner. 
They  like  to  trade  with  him  because  he 
interests  them.  It  is  a  grace,  or  a  manner, 
or  a  charm  that  it  may  not  be  easy  to  name 
or  to  describe.  He  is  tactful,  pleasing  and 
gracious,  and  the  influence  of  his  manner 
and  disposition  is  felt  throughout  his  estab- 
lishment and  by  his  customers. 

'Business  is  not  merely  a  "machine";  the 
machinery  of  business  is  only  an  accessory; 
it  must  be  vitalized,  if  it  is  to  be  successful, 
by  a  personal  equation  which  attracts  in- 
stead of  repels;  which  pleases  instead  of 
offends.  It  makes  no  difference  whether 
this  quality  of  pleasing  is  inherent,  or  is 
the  result  of  genius,  or  is  acquired  by  a 
studied  effort,  it  is  both  a  powerful  and  an 
indispensable  thing  in  business.  You  may 
win  some  trade  through  a  series  of  duels, 
winning  custom  over  and  against  your 
rivals  by  cleverness  or  generalship  of  sell- 
ing, but  continued  prosperity  will  largely 
depend  upon  the  quality  of  pleasing  which 
must  emanate  from  you  and  dominate  your 
establishment.' — PRINTERS'  INK. 


Tactful  Relations  With 
Customers 

"THE  question  of  the  tactful  treatment  of  customers, 
while  a  subject  which  has  probably  occupied  the 
attention  of  individual  members  of  this  association,  is 
one  that  I  believe  has  never  been  raised  to  the  dignity  of 
a  discussion  or  of  a  paper  read  at  the  convention.  The 
discussions  held  at  the  annual  conventions  have  hereto- 
fore been  mainly  on  matters  pertaining  to  the  purely 
operating  departments  of  the  business.  Without  in  any 
way  deprecating,  or  wishing  to  take  one  jot  or  tittle  of 
importance  from  those  departments  and  the  technical 
questions  particularly  interesting  them,  I  maintain  that 
the  time  has  come  when  the  daily  relations  of  those  de- 
partments with  the  public  must  be  considered,  and  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  purely  business  depart- 
ments (so  called)  should  be  taken  into  consideration. 

As  I  am  fully  convinced  that  the  subject  is  one  in  the 
discussion  of  which  it  would  hardly  be  possible  to  spend 
too  much  time— as  it  is  a  subject  that  strikes  directly  at 
the  life  blood,  i.  e.,  the  income  of  the  central  station  com- 
pany—and as  it  is  a  subject  that  intrinsically  effects  the 
standing  in  the  community  of  the  corporation,  be  it  a 
railroad,  a  lighting  and  power  plant,  or  any  other  form 
of  public  service,  it  is  my  opinion  that  a  full  and  ample 
discussion  of  the  subject  must  sooner  or  later  result. 


118  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

To  central-station  managers,  it  is  a  question  of  the  ut- 
most importance.  On  them  devolves  the  duty  not  only 
of  defending  and  advancing  the  interests  of  those  who 
are  financially  interested  in  the  corporation,  but,  and 
almost  more  important,  is  the  duty  assigned  them  as 
representatives  of  the  franchise  rights  granted  by  the 
body  politic,  to  which  body  they  will  be  held  for  a  strict 
accounting. 

A  question  to-day  seriously  occupying  the  atttention 
of  the  public— and  one  that,  if  not  provided  against  by 
the  just  and  tactful  treatment  of  customers,  will  surely 
in  the  near  future  play  an  important  part  in  our  politi- 
cal life — is  that  of  municipal  ownership  of  public  utili- 
ties. It  is  not  my  intention  to  discuss  the  pros  and  cons 
of  this  issue,  but,  as  you,  gentlemen,  or  most  of  you, 
represent  such  public  utility  corporations,  it  is  fair  to 
assume  that  you  are  opposed  to  any  legislation  looking 
to  a  change  in  existing  conditions.  Then  you  should 
show  by  your  methods  in  operating  your  companies  that 
you  recognize  the  limitations,  as  well  as  the  privileges, 
vested  in  your  franchise  rights.  You  should  show  by 
your  acts  your  realization  of  the  fact  that  those  rights 
have  been  granted  by  the  people,  and  that  they  have  at 
all  times  the  right  to  demand  from  you  an  account  of 
your  stewardship :  that  your  duties  well  and  courteously 
performed  will  disarm  criticism,  while  such  duties  neg- 
lected or  discourteously  performed  will  result  in  a  just 
upheaval  that  will  bring  disgrace  to  you  and  disaster 
to  the  financial  interests  you  are  chosen  to  defend. 

The  responsible  head  of  any  company  should  therefore 
see  to  it  that  there  are  placed  at  the  heads  of  the  various 
departments  under  him  men  who  will  realize  the  neces- 


TACTFUL    RELATIONS    WITH    CUSTOMERS.       119 

sity  of  tactful  treatment  of  those  with  whom  they  come 
in  contact.  The  methods  of  the  various  employees  will 
in  most  cases  be  found  to  be  in  line  with  the  methods  of 
the  head  of  the  department,  and  for  this  reason  suaviter 
in  modo,  fortiter  in  re,  mildness  in  method,  force  in  exe- 
cution, should  be  the  governing  principle  for  all  heads 
of  departments  in  the  central-station  company.  Never 
losing  sight  of  his  duty  to  the  company,  though  at  times 
the  fulfilling  of  that  duty  may  cause  temporary  displeas- 
ure to  the  customer,  it  is  always  possible  to  so  perform 
the  duty  that  the  minimum  amount  of  dissatisfaction 
shall  result,  and  this  should  be  the  object  of  the  head  of 
each  and  every  department  in  every  company.  Of  course 
we  all  know  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  head  of  the  de- 
partment to  look  after  every  detail.  He  is  not  a  success 
unless  he  is  a  detail  man,  but  that  should  mean  his  having 
his  department  so  systematized  as  to  produce  the  detail 
when  he  may  need  it.  He  should  therefore  surround 
himself  with  such  assistants,  and  so  impress  upon  them 
their  duties  to  the  company  and  the  public,  both  by  pre- 
cept and  example,  that  the  tactful  relations  with  the  cus- 
tomer may  be  maintained  without  jeopardizing  the  best 
interests  of  the  company. 

From  the  office  boy  and  the  elevator  conductor, 
through  all  the  ramifications  in  the  organization  of  a 
great  company,  up  to  the  president,  upon  each  and  every 
one  depend  the  reputation  of  the  company  and  its  popu- 
larity, or  lack  of  it,  with  the  public.  The  office  boy  of 
to-day  may  be  the  president  of  to-morrow;  the  book- 
keeper or  bill  clerk  may  later  be  the  comptroller;  but 
this  can  only  be  if  he  so  fulfills  his  duty  as  to  impress 
favorably  the  outside  public,  to  accomplish  which  he 


120  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

must  continually  strive  to  maintain  the  friendly  rela- 
tions of  the  company  with  the  customer. 

The  Perfunctory  Performance  of  Duties  Devolving 
upon  us  never  Produces  Preferment.  Every  employee 
should  be  ambitious  to  improve  his  position  in  his  com- 
pany. To  secure  this  advancement,  he  should  not  be 
content  simply  to  do  his  duty,  but  should  strive  to  do 
it  better  than  any  one  else  could  perform  the  same  duty. 
It  may  at  first  seem  that  I  am  now  away  from  my  sub- 
ject. Not  so.  Much  good  or  much  harm  may  be  done 
the  company  in  the  minds  of  the  public  by  those  with 
whom  the  public  may  never  come  in  personal  contact. 
The  introduction  of  the  telephone  in  business  life  has 
been  at  once  a  great  blessing  and  a  great  curse.  To  the 
acquisition  of  the  telephone  is  attributable  much  of  the 
development  of  business  possibilities.  This  we  all  know. 
But  unfortunately  we  also  know  that  to  the  misuse  or 
careless  use  of  the  telephone  is  due  much  of  the  ill-feel- 
ing exhibited  by  the  public  toward  public-service  corpo- 
rations. Too  much  care  can  not  be  exercised  by  the  de- 
partment manager  in  impressing  on  the  minds  of  those 
under  him  the  necessity  of  courteous  telephone  treat- 
ment. It  is  one  of  the  peculiar  weaknesses  of  human 
nature  that  we  are  all  more  or  less  prone  to  adopt,  at 
times,  an  acrimonious  or  peremptory  tone  on  the  tele- 
phone which  we  would  not  dream  of  employing  if  deal- 
ing with  the  customer  in  persona  propria,  and  this  is 
particularly  true  of  the  junior  clerk  or  office  boy  who 
conceives  an  exaggerated  idea  of  his  own  importance. 
To  school  those  whose  duties  bring  them  into  frequent 
daily  contact  with  the  public  over  the  telephone,  to  be 
patient,  polite  and  exact,  is  a  task  of  no  small  magni- 


TACTFUL    RELATIONS    WITH    CUSTOMERS.       121 

tude;  but  it  is  one  that  can  not  fail  to  commend  itself 
to  the  men  in  authority  who  carefully  study  the  situa- 
tion. I  do  not  think  I  am  overstating  the  case  when  I 
affirm  that  a  company 's  reputation  with  the  general  pub- 
lic depends,  in  the  last  analysis,  upon  the  spirit  exhibited 
by  the  company's  rank  and  file  as  much  as  upon  the  in- 
fluence exerted  by  its  general  officers.  I  am  pleased  to 
believe,  from  my  observations,  that  the  time  when  the 
employee  of  a  corporation  looks  upon  the  public  as  his 
natural  enemy  and  treats  him  accordingly,  especially  in 
telephone  communication,  is  rapidly  passing  away.  But 
in  this  line  much  yet  remains  to  be  achieved. 

Thus  far  I  have  dealt  altogether  with  the  duties  de- 
volving upon  the  office  employees  in  maintaining 
friendly  relations  with  the  customers.  This  is,  of  course, 
very  important.  But  much  more  important  is  the  rela- 
tion to  the  customer  of  the  contract  agent,  the  inspector, 
the  collector,  the  meter  reader  and  the  repair  man.  They 
are  the  ones  who  come  in  daily  and  close  contact  with 
the  customer,  and  on  them  devolves  most  closely  the  duty 
of  maintaining  the  friendly  relations  with  customers. 
The  repair  man  may  maintain  the  friendly  relations 
more  intimately  by  carefully  attending  to  his  duty,  be 
it  the  connecting  up  or  cutting  off  of  a  customer.  I 
have  known  men  whose  primary  duty  it  was  to  cut  off 
customers  for  non-payment  of  bills,  who  have  so  per- 
formed their  duties  that  not  only  was  the  customer  not 
cut  off  (because  he  paid  his  bill),  but  was  made  a  valua- 
ble customer  for  the  company.  The  meter  reader  can 
make  himself  valuable  by  his  suaviter  in  modo,  while 
answering  questions  asked  by  the  customer.  To  say,  ' '  If 
you  want  to  know  how  much  your  bill  is,  go  to  the 


122  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

office/'  is  one  extreme  of  folly.  To  say,  "Your  bill  for 
this  month  is  so  much"  (not  regarding  the  previous 
reading),  is  the  other  extreme.  Between  the  crow's 
monosyllable  of  the  first,  and  the  parrot's  chatter  of  the 
second,  the  Scylla  and  Charybdis,  lies  the  road  to  the 
"presidency."  I  have  known  collectors  who  so  ap- 
proached customers  in  demanding  payment  of  a  bill  that 
they  not  only  collected  the  bill,  but  left  a  satisfied  cus- 
tomer after  they  departed. 

The  inspector  is  considered  by  the  customer  as  one 
link  in  the  chain  of  his  friendship  with  the  company, 
and  much  depends  upon  the  tactful  manner  in  which 
he  may  tell  the  customer  he  can  or  can  not  be  connected 
to  the  station,  and  the  reason  therefor.  For  instance, 
to  speak  to  the  customer  in  terms  that  he  will  under- 
stand, is  a  delicate  courtesy,  and  one  bound  to  be  appre- 
ciated. Harm  may  sometimes  be  done  by  thoughtlessly 
expressing  one's  self  in  technical  terms.  To  say,  "You 
have  no  City,"  may  be  English  to  the  inspector,  but 
Greek  to  the  customer.  It  would  not  consume  much 
more  time  to  say,  "It  is  necessary  for  you  to  procure 
the  approval  of  the  city  inspection  department  and  pay 
its  fee,  and  this  may  be  done,  etc. ' '  But  still  the  amica- 
ble relation  might  thereby  be  better  maintained.  To 
say,  "This  wiring  will  not  pass  city  inspection,"  may  be 
true.  It  would  be  more  satisfactory  to  the  customer  if 
he  were  told,  not  in  technical  terms,  but  in  good  every- 
day expression — and  such  is  possible — wherein  exist 
the  defects  that  prevent  that  customer  from  furnishing 
his  share  of  the  income  due  to  the  company. 

And  now  I  come  to  him  who  can  best  show  the  advan- 
tage of  tactful  relations— the  agent.  The  time  has 


TACTFUL    RELATIONS    WITH    CUSTOMERS.       123 

passed  when  the  contract  agent  can  be  considered  as  a 
result  of  the  central  station— a  something  necessitated 
by  the  inherent  extension  of  the  business.  He  is  now  a 
prominent  and  necessary  factor  in  the  growth  of  that 
business.  He  leads,  let  others  follow.  But,  because  he 
leads,  because  he  is  on  the  firing  line  of  the  progress  of 
his  company,  greater  duties  and  obligations  devolve 
upon  him.  To  him,  almost  more  than  to  any  other  man 
in  the  company,  appears  to  belong  the  right  to  cherish 
ambition  for  advancement.  Honorable  ambition  is  the 
right,  the  duty,  of  every  man.  Honorable  ambition 
means  the  seeking  to  uplift  one's  self  only  by  uplifting 
that  body  or  people  through  which  one  seeks  to  be  up- 
lifted. Therefore,  while  the  agent  has  a  greater  oppor- 
tunity, from  his  daily  association  with  the  business 
world,  to  find  means  to  gratify  his  ambition,  there  rests 
upon  him,  for  that  very  reason,  a  greater  responsibility 
—that  he  shall  so  conduct  himself  and  so  perform  his 
duties  that  he  will  advance  the  interests  of  the  company 
he  represents. 

I  can  not  proceed  further  on  this  subject  without  re- 
ferring to  one  custom  that  has  been  too  common,  and 
must  have  brought  into  disrepute  the  companies  where 
it  has  been  practiced.  I  mean  using  the  contract  de- 
partment of  the  company  as  a  catch-all  for  applicants 
for  positions  who  are  backed  up  by  personal  friendship 
of  the  officers  or  by  political  influence,  and  by  nothing 
else.  I  do  not  mean  that  men  so  vouched  for  are  ipso 
facto,  incompetent,  but  unfortunately  they  too  often 
seek  support  of  this  kind  because  they  have  not  the  force 
or  ambition  to  advance  their  own  fortunes.  If  such  men 
must  be  taken  care  of,  let  them  at  least  be  placed  where 
they  will  do  the  least  harm. 


124  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

Gentlemen,  take  home  to  yourselves  the  question  of 
the  careful  choosing  of  solicitors.  When  the  coal  agent 
or  the  man  from  the  oil  company  calls  on  you,  you  will 
instinctively  judge  the  company  by  its  representative 
and  govern  yourselves  accordingly.  Choose,  then,  solici- 
tors who  do,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  represent  you. 
Finesse  and  diplomacy  are  qualities  that  every  solicitor 
should  cultivate,  but  never  at  the  expense  of  good  faith. 
In  the  long  run,  it  is  sincerity  that  wins  the  business  and 
holds  it.  A  customer  ignored  is  a  customer  antagon- 
ized. A  mountain  of  contracted  business  may  be  piled 
up  by  solicitors  who  fail  to  realize  the  vital  relations  of 
promise  to  performance.  The  successful  consummation 
of  a  contract  is  only  attained  when  the  customer  is  made 
to  feel  that  his  best  interests  and  those  of  the  company 
are  identical. 

Each  agent,  in  his  district,  is  the  company,  and  he 
should  so  deport  himself  in  his  relations  with  the  public 
that  he  may  demonstrate  the  good  effects  of  Tactful  Re- 
lations with  Customers.  Let  him  not  be  arbitrary  in 
his  statements,  so  as  to  antagonize  the  customer,  "but 
use  all  gently. "  "Be  not  too  tame,  neither."  "Be 
just,  and  fear  not."  With  these  trite  but  true  quota- 
tions as  his  mottoes,  he  will  maintain  the  tactful  rela- 
tions and  may  justly  find  himself  imbued  with  the 
inspiration  of  honorable  ambition,  nor  will  he  be  disap- 
pointed. 

Unfortunately,  some  agents  show  a  tendency  to  de- 
pend almost  altogether  either  on  their  individual  person- 
ality in  its  securing  for  them  an  introduction  to  a  cus- 
tomer, or  upon  their  ability  as  social  entertainers  in 
inducing  that  prospective  customer  to  make  a  contract. 


TACTFUL    RELATIONS    WITH    CUSTOMERS.       125 

This  is  a  very  great  error.  These  may  be,  and  some- 
times are,  necessary  incidentals  and  serve  to  assist  the 
agent  in  the  attaining  of  his  object.  The  valuable  agent, 
however,  is  not  the  one  who  depends  only  on  his  suaviter 
in  modo,  who  "cons"  the  public  by  his  smooth  address. 
He  seldom  lasts,  and  generally  leaves  the  company  a 
heritage  of  trouble  from  which  it  finds  it  difficult  and 
expensive  to  extricate  itself.  The  wise  man  will  rather 
assure  himself  first  of  his  position  as  represented  in  the 
ultimate  advantage  to  be  derived  by  the  company.  He 
will  satisfy  himself  that  the  financial  terms  of  the  con- 
tract are  fair  and  profitable ;  that  the  clauses  in  the  con- 
tract are  carefully  and  legally  drawn.  The  agent  is 
often  too  anxious  to  sign  his  name  to  a  contract  for  three 
or  four  thousand  lights,  to  study  well  whether  the  con- 
tract is  worth  the  paper  on  which  it  is  written.  But 
with  the  financial  terms  of  the  contract  fair  and  profita- 
ble, with  the  clauses  carefully  and  legally  drawn,  the 
agent  may  cheerfully  approach  that  customer.  He  may 
then  supplement  the  suaviter  in  modo  with  the  fortiter 
in  re,  and  nine  times  out  of  ten  he  will  land  a  customer, 
and  one  who,  with  tactful  handling  thereafter,  will  be  a 
satisfied  income-producer  and  a  good  advertiser. 

I  will  take  up  one  other  department — one  so  impor- 
tant, and  in  its  very  essence  depending  so  very  much 
upon  tact,  and,  if  tactfully  administered,  of  such  great 
and  lasting  importance  to  the  central-station  company, 
that  to  omit  it  in  a  paper  of  this  kind  would  indeed 
be  a  grievous  error.  I  refer  to  the  department  dealing 
with  complaints  from  customers.  I  am  sure  you  will 
agree  with  me  that  here  indeed  is  the  opportunity  for  a 
display  of  tact  of  the  highest  order.  The  customer  ap- 


126  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

pearing  before  the  representative  of  the  claim  depart- 
ment is,  from  the  very  fact  that  he  is  there,  almost 
always  in  a  state  of  antagonism  to  the  company.  If  he 
comes  honestly  to  complain,  he  feels  that  he  has  suffered 
an  injury.  He  feels  that,  intentionally  or  unintention- 
ally, the  company  has  done  him  harm ;  that  he  has  been 
asked  to  pay  for  that  which  he  has  not  received,  and, 
worse  than  all,  he  comes  with  a  premonition  that,  dealing 
with  a  corporation,  he  is  to  receive  no  consideration,  and 
that  he  must  fight  his  battle  to  the  bitter  end.  It  is,  of 
course,  unnecessary  before  you,  gentlemen,  to  argue  why 
he  is  mistaken.  It  would,  of  course,  be  superfluous  to 
remind  you  that  the  employees  of  a  corporation  who 
have  rendered  him  his  bill,  have  done  so  in  all  honesty 
and  with  fair  intent;  but,  gentlemen,  it  devolves  upon 
the  claim  agent  to  convince  this  exasperated  man  that  no 
injury  has  been  done  him,  or  that  if  he  has  suffered  an 
unintentional  harm  the  company  is  only  too  anxious  to 
right  the  wrong. 

The  claim  man,  therefore,  should  be  one  who  would 
instinctively  and  at  once  be  able  to  judge  the  character 
and  temperament  of  him  with  whom  he  is  to  deal.  In 
the  majority  of  cases,  I  think  it  is  a  mistake  to  try  to  con- 
vince the  claimant  of  the  correctness  of  his  bill  at  the 
first  interview.  Rather,  I  would  advise  that  his  com- 
plaint should  be  carefully  and  respectfully  listened  to, 
and  then  he  be  informed  that  a  thorough  investigation 
would  be  made.  When  this  investigation  has  been  made, 
the  claim  man  should  look  well  into  the  conditions  and 
satisfy  himself  that  having  once  taken  a  position  based 
upon  that  investigation  his  ground  should  be  so  sure  that 
no  evidence  could  afterward  be  brought  to  cause  him  to 
withdraw  therefrom. 


TACTFUL    RELATIONS    WITH    CUSTOMERS.       127 

Should  the  result  of  his  investigation  show  that  an 
error  had  been  made  in  the  reading  of  the  meter,  or  in 
figuring  the  bill,  or  in  any  other  way,  he  should  at  once 
hasten  to  apprise  the  customer  of  this  fact,  state  to  him 
the  rebate  to  which  he  might  be  entitled,  and  make  the 
customer  feel  that  the  company  is  grateful  to  him  for 
giving  it  an  opportunity  to  rectify  the  wrong.  Where 
the  result  of  the  investigation  shows  that  the  readings 
are  correct,  and  that  no  injustice  has  been  done  to  the 
customer,  then  I  believe  he  should,  as  far  as  possible, 
seek  a  personal  interview  in  which  he  may  explain  to  the 
customer  why  the  bill  appears  to  be  right,  and  in  which 
he  may  receive  from  the  customer  information  which 
would  tend  to  show  the  justice  of  the  company's  position. 

The  position  of  claim  agent  is  a  very  trying  one,  but 
it  has  its  ray  of  sunshine  in  that  oftentimes  the  claim 
agent  can  afterward  point  to  cases  where  he  has  proven 
to  the  customer's  satisfaction  that  the  bill  as  rendered 
was  correct ;  and  he  will  find  that  that  honest  contestant, 
once  satisfied  as  to  the  company's  just  treatment,  ^vill 
thereafter  not  only  cheerfully  pay  his  bills  so  long  as 
they  are  correct,  but  will  at  all  times,  in  and  out  of  sea- 
son, bear  evidence  to  the  fair,  just  and  tactful  methods 
pursued  by  the  company. 

Finally,  let  us  remember,  gentlemen,  that  the  primary 
object  of  our  business,  as  of  any  other  business,  is  finan- 
cial advancement.  What  the  citizen  needs  in  our  line 
we  must  give  him ;  what  he  thinks  he  needs,  we  must  find 
for  him;  what  he  is  unaware  of  in  his  needs,  we  must 
show  him,  and  all  for  the  commercial  betterment  of  our 
city  and  the  financial  advancement  of  our  company. 


The  Importance  of  Audits 


JOHN    FARSON 


FARSON,   L.KACH  &  COMPANY 
CHICAGO 


The  auditing  of  public  and  private  ac- 
counts is  one  of  the  most  necessary  means 
to  give  a  quiet  and  satisfactory  existence 
to  the  men  who  are  burdened  with  large 
enterprises.  No  man,  no  matter  how  able, 
is  competent  to  manage  the  details  and  at 
the  same  time  successfully  carry  forward 
the  policies  of  his  company.  He  must  trust 
the  details  to  others  and  this  trust  is  the 
weak  spot  in  the  edifice  which  too  often  is 
the  cause  of  its  tumbling  about  him.  For 
who  knows  the  volcano  on  which  the  man 
who  implicitly  trusts  stands  which  at  any 
moment  may,  by  a  sudden  upheaval,  lose 
the  whole  of  a  life's  efforts. 

Examinations  by  expert  accountants  are 
never  considered  reflections  on  bookkeep- 
ers, or  other  employees  or  officials;  it  is  a 
part  of  a  system  and  should  be  so  recog- 
nized and  acquiesced  in  by  everybody  con- 
cerned.— BUSINESS  WORLD. 


The  Importance  of  Audits 

JV/l  ANY  keen  business  men  seem  to  be  surprised  at  the 
number  of  chartered  auditing  companies  which 
have  appeared  on  the  commercial  horizon  in  the  past 
few  years  and  at  the  rapidly  increasing  demand  for 
their  services.  It  would  be  far  more  reasonable,  how- 
ever, to  be  astonished  that  the  practice  of  employing 
these  experts  is  not  so  extensive  as  to  be  practically 
universal. 

Speaking  from  the  viewpoint  of  a  man  who  is  required 
constantly  to  pass  upon  investment  propositions  of  every 
kind,  I  am  free  to  confess  that  I  would  regard  myself  as 
failing  to  exercise  due  and  ordinary  precaution  in  pro- 
tecting the  interests  of  my  clients  if  I  did  not  invariably 
require,  in  taking  up  a  new  enterprise,  an  audit  certifi- 
cate by  a  responsible  chartered  company.  It  is  one 
thing  to  be  morally  satisfied  that  any  enterprise  offered 
by  you  for  investment  is  a  "good  thing "  and  in  sound 
condition,  and  quite  another  definitely  to  know  every 
factor  and  item  in  that  condition  as  ascertained  by  an 
impartial  and  expert  inspector,  who  is  not  easily  fooled 
by  the  clever  groupings  of  figures  or  by  specious  appear- 
ances, but  who  knows  how  to  go  straight  to  the  weak 
spots  in  every  business. 

To  take  up  an  enterprise  and  urge  it  for  investment 
without  first  having  it  examined  by  an  auditing  com- 


132  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

pany's  experts  would,  in  my  opinion,  be  about  on  a  par 
with  the  action  of  the  young  man  who  wished  to  go  into 
the  iron  business  and  bought  a  certain  foundry  mainly 
because  he  liked  the  style  of  the  blast  cupola  which 
topped  the  building. 

The  necessity  for  audits  is  becoming  so  commonly  ap- 
preciated by  men  doing  business  in  a  large  way  that  it 
is  the  general  practice  to  require  an  auditor's  certified 
statement.  With  experienced  financial  men  this  is  looked 
upon  as  a  routine  requirement  and  is  as  much  expected 
as  an  abstract  of  title  in  the  purchase  and  transfer  of 
real  estate. 

Again,  it  is  becoming  practically  impossible  to  dispose 
of  any  kind  of  a  business,  whether  in  the  form  of  a  firm 
or  of  a  corporation,  without  first  having  its  affairs  ex- 
amined by  a  reputable  audit  company.  This  process  is 
comparatively  so  inexpensive  and  involves  so  little  effort 
or  trouble  that  there  is  really  no  excuse  for  failing  to 
have  it  done  in  the  transfer  of  any  business,  whether 
private  or  corporate. 

Speaking  again  from  my  own  personal  viewpoint,  it  is 
probably  true  that  many  of  my  clients  would  be  willing 
to  take  my  assurance  that  I  had  looked  into  a  business 
and  found  it  to  be  all  right.  If,  however,  such  persons 
would  stop  to  reason  out  the  matter,  they  would  readily 
see  that  it  is  manifestly  impossible  for  any  man  handling 
a  large  number  of  securities  or  investment  enterprises 
personally  to  investigate  the  condition  of  each  enterprise 
in  a  detailed  way,  even  if  he  had  the  abilities  and  train- 
ing to  equip  him  for  this  technical  task.  Consequently, 
I  feel  that,  no  matter  if  a  client  honors  me  with  his  confi- 
dence to  the  extent  I  have  indicated,  this  does  not  justify 


THE    IMPORTANCE    OF    AUDITS.  133 

me  in  failing  to  exercise  for  him  a  precaution  which  I 
would  myself  demand  of  others. 

Thus  far  I  have  spoken  only  of  the  matter  of  audits  in 
connection  with  the  sale,  promotion  or  transfer  of  busi- 
ness. There  is  another  phase  of  this  question  which  is 
equally  important,  and  that  is  the  regular  periodical 
auditing  of  the  books  of  any  financial,  commercial  or  in- 
dustrial concern.  Any  man  doing  a  business  of  $100,000 
a  year,  is,  in  my  opinion,  guilty  of  gross  neglect  to  his 
own  interests  if  he  does  not  have  his  accounting  records 
examined  by  a  chartered  auditing  company.  And  on 
this  score  I  practice  what  I  preach,  having  my  own  books 
and  accounts  frequently  audited  by  experts.  This  I  do, 
not  because  of  lack  of  confidence  in  my  own  employees, 
but  because  I  am  thus  able  to  get  an  analytical  survey 
of  my  business  from  the  viewpoint  of  an  unprejudiced 
outsider,  trained  in  this  kind  of  investigation.  Not  only 
does  this  give  me  a  fresh  perspective  upon  my  affairs, 
showing  me  the  exact  situation  as  it  appears  to  the  eyes 
of  a  man  who  is  wholly  impartial  and  disinterested,  but 
frequently  the  expert  brings  me  points  and  suggestions 
gathered  in  his  varied  experiences  which  are  of  greatest 
practical  value. 

Because  a  business  is  comparatively  small,  it  is  not 
exempt  from  the  need  of  this  kind  of  professional  ser- 
vice. There  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  retail  mer- 
chants to  feel  that  an  audit  is  a  luxury,  if  not  a  superflu- 
ity, so  far  as  their  business  is  concerned.  This  is  decid- 
edly a  mistake.  The  average  retailer  is  notoriously 
negligent  of  the  accounting  end  of  his  business,  a  fact 
which  in  large  measure  accounts  for  the  excessive  pro- 
portion of  failures  in  the  retail  trade.  Any  business 


134  THE   TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

large  enough  to  have  separate  departments  and  subordi- 
nates to  whom  the  owner,  or  owners,  must  necessarily 
delegate  executive  authority,  is  big  enough  to  profitably 
employ  an  expert  auditor  and  have  its  accounts  exam- 
ined at  least  once  a  year. 

How  imperative  is  the  need  of  an  expert  audit  is  well 
illustrated  by  the  failure  of  a  large  Chicago  business 
house  which  not  long  since  went  into  liquidation.  This 
business  was  conducted  by  three  partners,  the  nominal 
head  of  the  house  being  a  gentleman  too  advanced  in 
years  to  give  more  than  a  ' '  consulting "  service  to  the 
business.  Another  partner  was  a  man  of  middle  age 
who  had  been  trained  in  the  selling  end  of  the  house  and 
had  practically  no  experience  in  the  management  of 
finances.  The  third  partner  was  a  young  man  who  had 
inherited  his  interest  in  the  business  and  was  supposed 
to  be  the  controlling  factor  in  the  finances  of  the  house. 
Suddenly,  and  very  unexpectedly,  this  old  and  well- 
known  business  went  to  the  wall.  When  it  was  too  late, 
an  auditor  was  called  in  and  quickly  found  the  cause  of 
the  trouble: 

The  business  had  been  sapped  by  the  outside  invest- 
ments and  speculations  of  the  youngest  partner.  "For 
several  years,"  said  the  oldest  partner,  "I  have  been,  on 
account  of  age,  practically  retired  from  business,  and 
have  only  been  consulted  occasionally  by  the  men  en- 
trusted with  the  active  management.  I  did  not  know 
anything  about  this  drain  upon  the  resources  of  the  con- 
cern and  supposed  that  we  were  in  good  condition. ' ' 

"I  have  been  busy/'  explained  the  second  partner, 
"promoting  sales  and  handing  out  goods.  Of  course,  I 
knew  we  were  doing  a  very  good  business  and  felt  that 


THE    IMPORTANCE    OF    AUDITS.  135 

any  important  matter  connected  with  the  finances  of  the 
house  would  be  called  to  my  attention  by  the  partner  in 
charge  of  that  department. ' ' 

In  other  words,  if  within  the  last  two  or  three  years 
this  house  had  subjected  its  accounting  records  to  exam- 
ination by  an  audit  company,  both  of  the  elder  partners 
would  have  been  at  once  informed  of  the  outside  invest- 
ments of  the  youngest  partner  and  the  latter  would  have 
been  speedily  called  to  account  and  his  outside  invest- 
ments and  operations  stopped  and  the  failure  of  the 
business  averted. 

So  rapid  have  been  the  changes  in  business  methods 
within  the  last  five  years  that  a  man  who  hopes  to  keep 
in  the  race  must  be  alert  and  ready  at  any  moment  to 
change  his  methods  and  take  advantage  of  every  pro- 
gressive step,  in  the  matter  of  better  system,  that  offers. 
And  if  he  is  not  prepared  to  do  this  he  may  as  well  shut 
up  shop  and  retire  at  once,  for  the  business  struggle  has 
become  so  strenuous  that  only  those  who  are  able  to  adapt 
themselves  to  the  conditions  of  to-day,  no  matter  how 
radically  they  may  be  at  variance  with  those  of  yester- 
day, have  reasonable  hope  for  success. 


Analyzing  a  Business  Proposition 


W.   T.    FENTON 


PRESIDENT  CHICAGO  CLEARING   HOUSE 
ASSOCIATION 


'The  age  demands  steady  headed  men, 
men  whose  feet  stand  on  the  ground,  men 
who  can  see  things  as  they  really  are,  and 
act  accordingly.' 

'At  the  base  of  all  business  enterprise  is 
character.  If  the  good  man  were  not  in 
business,  and  a  good  many  of  him  too,  trade 
and  traffic  on  any  extensive  scale  would 
be  impossible.  Character  makes  credit,  and 
credit  is  the  stimulating  atmosphere  in 
which  the  vast  systems  of  modern  manu- 
facture flourish.  At  the  base  of  all  develop- 
ment is  character.  Because  so  many  men 
may  be  relied  upon  to  keep  their  word  and 
fulfill  their  obligations,  the  world  of  com- 
merce ordinarily  moves  on  in  a  broad  sweep 
without  great  friction  or  disturbance. 

'In  the  practical  conduct  of  business  proof 
is  again  and  again  afforded  of  the  fact  that 
the  man  in  business  is  more  than  just  the 
man  of  business.  The  personal  equation 
counts  here  as  it  does  in  all  other  relations 
of  life/ 


Analyzing  a  Business  Proposition 


HTHE  first  thing  to  do  in  bringing  one's  mental  forces 
to  bear  on  a  new  business  proposition  is  to  abso- 
lutely exclude  everything  else.  Here  is  where  the  basis 
for  mistakes  and  failures  is  often  laid  at  the  very  outset. 
To  take  up  an  important  business  matter  without  com- 
pletely removing  from  the  mind  all  thought  of  every- 
thing save  the  one  subject  at  hand,  is  as  absurd  as  it 
would  be  for  an  admiral  to  take  his  fleet  into  action  with- 
out first  giving  the  order,  ' l  Clear  decks ! ' '  Possibly  this 
may  seem  too  trivial  a  point  to  warrant  the  emphasis 
placed  upon  it.  Experience,  however,  teaches  that  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  put  too  much  stress  upon  this  atti- 
tude of  the  mind  in  attacking  a  fresh  business  topic. 
Thousands  of  men  fall  just  short  of  a  large  success  in 
the  world  of  affairs  through  this  weakness ;  they  are  una- 
able,  at  will,  absolutely  to  drive  from  their  minds  the 
thoughts,  cares  and  anxieties  that  attach  to  the  subject 
which  they  have  been  considering  and  from  which  they 
desire  to  turn.  When  they  take  up  a  new  subject  they 
are  haunted  and  annoyed  by  lurking  anxiety  relating  to 
matters  other  than  the  one  under  immediate  considera- 
tion. And  these  lurking  ghosts  of  other  things  may  be 
depended  upon  to  make  mischief  and  prevent  that  acute- 
ness  of  concentration  imperative  in  the  process  of  going 
at  once  to  the  core  of  any  subject.  Swift  and  summary 
dismissal  is  the  only  means  by  which  these  agencies  of 


140  THE  TRANSACTION   OP  BUSINESS. 

distraction  may  be  routed;  and  the  art  of  ridding  one's 
mind  of  the  thoughts  that  have  filled  it  in  the  preceding 
moment  or  hour  is  one  of  the  most  vital  and  important 
traits  for  the  business  executive  to  cultivate. 

The  first  question  that  I  always  ask  when  a  new  busi- 
ness proposition  is  presented  to  me  is:  " Where  does 
this  come  from  ? ' '  Of  course,  the  man  who  presents  the 
matter  in  hand  will,  almost  invariably,  at  once  state  its 
nominal  origin;  but  quite  often  it  will  finally  be  found 
that  the  matter  has  a  beginning  at  a  point  or  with  an 
individual  not  disclosed  by  the  first  statement  of  the  man 
presenting  it.  Frequently  the  real  initiative  of  the  sub- 
ject is  cunningly  concealed  by  the  person  who  proposes 
the  matter,  for  reasons  and  motives  which  he  desires  to 
keep  secret.  The  necessity  of  getting  at  the  real  origin 
of  the  matter  is  in  proportion  to  this  desire  to  keep  the 
true  source  of  the  problem  covered.  While  many,  and 
perhaps  most,  important  business  matters  may  not  con- 
tain this  element  of  concealment,  so  far  as  their  real  be- 
ginnings are  concerned,  it  is  never  safe  to  proceed  on 
that  supposition.  Protection  against  this  danger  is  only 
to  be  had  by  invariable  adherence  to  the  rule  that  you 
must  probe  to  the  initiative  of  every  matter  and  know 
that  you  have  disclosed  its  real  origin. 

Almost  parallel  to  the  question,  "  Where  did  this 
proposition  originate?"  is  the  next  question,  "What  is 
behind  this  matter?" 

Not  all  important  business  problems  are  at  first  out- 
lined with  that  entire  frankness  which  lays  bare  all  the 
elements  involved.  There  are  few  exceptions  to  the  rule 
that  a  business  subject  contains  incidental  factors  and 
conditions  not  disclosed  by  the  "surface  indications." 


OF 


ANALYZING   A   BUSINESS   PROPOSITION.  141 

To  get  a  clear  view  and  a  definite  understanding  of  these 
secondary  or  incidental  considerations  is  at  once  one  of 
the  most  difficult  and  important  processes  in  the  analysis 
of  any  business  proposition,  and  this  kind  of  investiga- 
tion calls  into  action  all  the  tact  and  diplomacy  at  the 
command  of  the  man  whose  decision  is  sought.  Possibly 
the  thing  which  the  person  making  the  proposal  desires 
to  conceal  may  be  a  simple  matter  of  information,  of 
facts  or  figures,  of  market  or  trade  conditions,  of  finan- 
cial or  personal  responsibility  or  of  the  soundness  of 
assets  or  securities,  but  quite  as  likely  it  will  be  found  to 
be  a  matter  of  motive,  of  "  ulterior  purpose.  M  For  ex- 
ample, the  enterprise  submitted  for  consideration  may 
be  sound  in  itself,  but  may  be  promoted  mainly  for  the 
purpose  of  the  indirect  effect  which  it  will  have  upon 
some  other  interest.  The  man  who  brings  forward  the 
proposal  understands  clearly  that  you  would  at  once  de- 
cide against  the  proposition  if  you  understood  how  it 
would  effect  the  real  purpose  which  he  designs  it  to 
serve;  consequently  his  whole  effort  is  to  keep  you  in 
ignorance  of  this  ulterior  purpose,  this  incidental 
element. 

Still  another  question  which  must  be  raised  at  the 
outset  of  every  business  conference  dealing  with  a  fresh 
problem  is:  "Why  has  this  matter  been  brought  to 
me?  "  This  is  equivalent  to  inquiry  as  to  the  possibility 
of  a  purpose  on  the  part  of  the  person  making  the  pro- 
posal to  use  your  individual  standing,  connections  or 
influence  in  a  manner  and  to  an  end  that  you  would  re- 
gard as  undesirable  if  his  motive  were  clearly  apparent. 
Always  the  personal  equation  should  be  carefully  and 
accurately  determined.  Seldom  does  the  business  execu- 


142  THE  TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

tive  fail  to  take  this  into  consideration,  so  far  as  the  man 
with  whom  he  is  dealing  is  concerned ;  but  very  often  he 
fails  to  analyze  this  feature  of  the  problem  as  applied  to 
himself.  He  is  careful  to  weigh  every  element  con- 
nected with  the  personality  of  the  man  with  whom  he  is 
dealing,  but  is  inclined  to  overlook  his  own  personality 
and  individual  environment  as  related  to  the  problem  in 
hand.  Any  business  executive  who  does  not  wish  to  be 
"used"  to  the  advantage  of  others  and  to  his  own  dis- 
advantage will,  I  think,  realize  the  force  of  this  observa- 
tion. 

No  general  rule  in  regard  to  the  consideration  of  im- 
portant business  problems  has  been  of  greater  service 
to  me  than  that  which  may  be  tersely  stated  in  the 
words :  ' '  Let  the  other  man  do  the  talking. ' '  The 
soundnes  of  this  maxim  has  been  so  conclusively  demon- 
strated, so  far  as  my  own  experience  goes,  that  I  do  not 
hesitate  invariably  to  adhere  to  it  and  to  urge  it  as  a 
cardinal  rule  that  will  serve  on  all  occasions.  The  logic 
of  this  procedure  is  apparent  when  it  is  remembered 
that  every  man  who  is  charged  with  the  responsibility 
of  presenting  an  important  business  proposition  goes  to 
his  task  prepared  to  answer  questions  and  objections 
which  the  man  with  whom  he  desires  to  treat  is  most 
likely  to  offer.  I  doubt  if  there  is  an  exception  to  this 
rule.  "What  questions  will  he  ask  me  and  what  objec- 
tions will  he  raise  ?"  furnishes  the  groundwork  for  the 
preparation  which  every  man  makes  for  the  presentation 
of  a  business  proposal  to  the  man  he  hopes  to  interest. 

When  these  questions  are  brought  forward  he  is  ready 
to  answer  them;  by  asking  the  questions  naturally  sug- 
gested by  his  statements  you  are  playing  directly  into 


ANALYZING   A   BUSINESS   PROPOSITION.  143 

his  hands  and  are  doing  precisely  what  he  desires  you 
to  do,  carrying  out  the  line  of  campaign  which  he  has 
devised.  He  is  ready  to  meet  you  at  every  point  with 
the  answers  and  arguments  carefully  pre-arranged  and 
best  calculated  to  win  success  for  his  cause. 

But  what  is  the  result  if  you  place  the  burden  of  con- 
versation on  him,  force  him  to  do  the  talking  and  fail  to 
come  forward  with  the  questions  which  he  has  prepared 
himself  to  answer?  Simply  this:  He  is  thrown  off 
from  his  predetermined  line  of  attack.  This  naturally 
disconcerts  him  and  he  finds  himself  obliged  to  adopt  a 
new  line  of  campaign.  So  long  as  you  are  attentive  to 
his  arguments  he  must  keep  on  presenting  them  until  he 
has  literally  "talked  himself  out." 

In  the  course  of  this  process  he  is  bound,  sooner  or 
later,  to  drop  a  word  here  and  there  which  will  give  you 
the  clew  to  his  motives  and  aims  and  which  will  place 
in  your  hands  the  possibility  of  getting  to  the  bottom  of 
the  subject. 

Consequently  I  would  place  particular  emphasis  on 
the  simple  rule  of  forcing  the  man  who  submits  a  busi- 
ness proposition  to  do  the  burden  of  the  talking.  This 
is  a  very  simple  point  of  practice,  yet  so  far  as  my  own 
observation  is  concerned,  it  is  more  effective  than  any 
other  in  bringing  to  light  the  weaknesses  of  any  business 
proposal. 


Dispatch  Delays 

Expense  Cunning 

FRANCIS   BACON 


Alert  business  men  of  today  seem  to  be 
in  danger  of  forgetting  that,  in  the  hurry  of 
business,  their  over  abundant  force  may  too 
often  lead  them  to  sustain  an  attitude  to- 
wards their  fellow-men  so  abrupt,  harsh  and 
antagonistic  as  to  seriously  reflect  upon 
their  reputation. 

The  otherwise  good  man  who  lacks  polite- 
ness or  assumes  a  gruff,  repellant  manner 
really  sacrifices  a  part  of  his  gifts,  for  very 
few  people  will  discover  his  good  qualities 
under  his  unpleasant  manners.  The  foun- 
dation of  agreeable  manner  is  thoughtful 
consideration  of  others,  or  true  politeness. 
This  does  not  imply  any  necessary  sacrifice 
of  frankness  and  honesty.  It  does  not  mean 
that  one  shall  not  contradict  or  dispute,  but 
it  does  mean  that  when  a  contradiction  is 
necessary  it  shall  be  expressed  courteously. 
Every  one  should  cultivate  this  kind  of  po- 
liteness, for,  in  so  far  as  it  helps  to  make 
one  agreeable,  it  extends  his  opportunities 
for  usefulness,  and  helps  to  give  full  play  to 
his  other  good  qualities. — BALTIMORE  SUN. 


Dispatch 


A  FFECTED  dispatch  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous 
things  to  business  that  can  be.  It  is  like  that  the 
physicians  call  predigestion,  or  hasty  digestion ;  which  is 
sure  to  fill  the  body  full  of  crudities  and  secret  seeds  of 
diseases.  Therefore  measure  not  dispatch  by  the  times 
of  sitting,  but  by  the  advancement  of  the  business.  And 
as  in  the  race  it  is  not  the  large  stride  or  high  lift  that 
makes  the  speed ;  so  in  business,  the  keeping  close  to  the 
matter,  and  not  taking  of  it  too  much  at  once,  procureth 
dispatch.  It  is  the  care  of  some  only  to  come  off  speedily 
for  the  time;  or  to  contrive  some  false  periods  of  busi- 
ness, because  they  may  seem  men  of  dispatch.  But  it  is 
one  thing  to  abbreviate  by  contracting,  another  by  cut- 
ting off.  And  business  so  handled  at  several  sittings 
or  meetings  goeth  commonly  backward  and  forward  in 
an  unsteady  manner.  I  knew  a  wise  man  that  had  it  for 
a  byword,  when  he  saw  men  hasten  to  a  conclusion, 
'  Stay  a  little,  that  we  may  make  an  end  the  sooner. ' 

On  the  other  side,  true  dispatch  is  a  rich  thing.  For 
time  is  the  measure  of  business,  as  money  is  of  wares; 
and  business  is  bought  at  a  dear  hand  where  there  is 
small  dispatch.  The  Spartans  and  Spaniards  have  been 
noted  to  be  of  small  dispatch;  Mi  venga  la  muerte  de 
Spagna;  'Let  my  death  come  from  Spain;'  for  then  it 
will  be  sure  to  be  long  in  coming. 


148  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

Give  good  hearing  to  those  that  give  the  first  informa- 
tion in  business;  and  rather  direct  them  in  the  begin- 
ning, than  interrupt  them  in  the  continuance  of  their 
speeches ;  for  he  that  is  put  out  of  his  own  order  will  go 
forward  and  backward,  and  be  more  tedious  while  he 
waits  upon  his  memory,  than  he  would  have  been  if  he 
had  gone  on  in  his  own  course.  But  sometimes  it  is  seen 
that  the  moderator  is  more  troublesome  than  the  actor. 

Iterations  are  commonly  loss  of  time.  But  there  is  no 
such  gain  of  time  as  to  iterate  often  the  state  of  the  ques- 
tion; for  it  chaseth  away  many  a  frivolous  speech  as  it 
is  coming  forth.  Long  and  curious  speeches  are  as  fit 
for  dispatch  as  a  robe  or  mantle  with  a  long  train  is  for 
race.  Prefaces  and  passages,  and  excusations,  and  other 
speeches  of  reference  to  the  person,  are  great  wastes  of 
time ;  and  though  they  seem  to  proceed  of  modesty,  they 
are  bravery.  Yet  beware  of  being  too  material  when 
there  is  any  impediment  or  obstruction  in  men's  wills; 
for  pre-occupation  of  mind  ever  requireth  preface  of 
speech ;  like  a  fomentation  to  make  the  unguent  enter. 

Above  all  things,  order^and  distribution,  and  singling 
out  of  parts,  is  the  life  of  dispatch;  so-as  the  distribu- 
tion be  not  too  subtle :  for  he  that  doth  not  divide  will 
never  enter  well  into  business;  and  he  that  divideth  too 
much  will  never  come  out  of  it  clearly.  To  choose  time 
is  to  save  time;  and  an  unseasonable  notion  is  but  beat- 
ing the  air.  There  be  three  parts  of  business;  the  pre- 
paration, the  debate  or  examination,  and  the  perfection. 
Whereof,  if  you  look  for  dispatch,  let  the  middle  only  be 
the  work  of  many,  and  the  first  and  last  the  work  of  few. 
The  proceeding  upon  somewhat  conceived  in  writing 
doth  for  the  most  part  facilitate  dispatch :  for  though  it 


DELAYS.  149 

should  be  wholly  rejected,  yet  that  negative  is  more 
pregnant  of  direction  than  an  indefinite;  as  ashes  are 
more  generative  than  dust. 


Delays 


PORTUNE  is  like  the  market;  where  many  times,  if 
you  can  stay  a  little,  the  price  will  fall.  And 
again,  it  is  sometimes  like  Sibylla's  offer;  which  at  first 
offereth  the  commodity  at  full,  then  consumeth  part  and 
part,  and  still  holdeth  up  the  price.  For  Occasion  (as  it 
is  in  the  common  verse)  turneth  a  bald  noddle,  after  she 
hath  presented  her  locks  in  front,  and  no  hold  taken ;  or 
at  least  turneth  the  handle  of  the  bottle  first  to  be  re- 
ceived, and  after  the  belly,  which  is  hard  to  clasp.  There 
is  surely  no  greater  wisdom  than  well  to  time  the  begin- 
ning and  onsets  of  things.  Dangers  are  no  more  light, 
if  they  once  seem  light ;  and  more  dangers  have  deceived 
men  that  forced  them.  Nay,  it  were  better  to  meet  some 
dangers  half  way,  though  they  come  nothing  near,  than 
to  keep  too  long  a  watch  upon  their  approaches;  for  if 
a  man  watch  too  long,  it  is  odds  he  will  fall  asleep.  On 
the  other  side,  to  be  deceived  with  too  long  shadows 
(as  some  have  been  when  the  moon  was  low  and  shone 
on  their  enemies'  back),  and  so  to  shoot  off  before  the 
time;  or  to  teach  dangers  to  come  on,  by  over  early 
buckling  towards  them,  is  another  extreme.  The  ripe- 


150  THE   TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 

ness  or  unripeness  of  the  occasion  (as  we  said)  must 
ever  be  well  weighed ;  and  generally  it  is  good  to  commit 
the  beginnings  of  all  great  actions  to  Argos  with  his 
hundred  eyes,  and  the  ends  to  Briareus  with  his  hundred 
hands ;  first  to  watch  and  then  to  speed.  For  the  helmet 
of  Pluto,  which  maketh  the  politic  man  go  invisible,  is 
secrecy  in  the  counsel  and  celerity  in  the  execution,  for 
when  things  are  once  conxe  to  the  execution  there  is  no 
secrecy  comparable  to  celerity ;  like  the  motion  of  a  bul- 
let in  the  air,  which  flieth  so  swift  as  it  outruns  the  eye. 


Expense 


DICHES  are  for  spending,  and  spending  for  honour 
and  good  actions.  Therefore,  extraordinary  ex- 
pense must  be  limited  by  the  worth  of  the  occasion ;  for 
voluntary  undoing  may  be  as  well  for  a  man's  country  as 
for  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  But  ordinary  expense  ought 
to  be  limited  by  a  man 's  estate ;  and  governed  with  such 
regard,  as  it  be  within  his  compass;  and  not  subject  to 
deceit  and  abuse  of  servants;  and  ordered  to  the  best 
show,  that  the  bills  may  be  less  than  the  estimation 
abroad.  Certainly,  if  a  man  will  keep  but  of  even 
hand,  his  ordinary  expenses  ought  to  be  but  to  the  half 
of  his  receipts;  and  if  he  think  to  wax  rich,  but  to  the 
third  part.  It  is  no  baseness  for  the  greatest  to  descend 
and  look  into  their  own  estate.  Some  forbear  it,  not 


EXPENSE.  151 

upon  negligence  alone,  but  doubting  to  bring  themselves 
into  melancholy,  in  respect  they  shall  find  it  broken. 
But  wounds  cannot  be  cured  without  searching.  He 
that  cannot  look  into  his  own  estate  at  all,  had  need 
both  choose  well  those  whom  he  employeth,  and  change 
them  often;  for  new  are  more  timorous  and  less  subtle. 
He  that  can  look  into  his  estate  but  seldom,  it  behoveth 
him  to  turn  all  to  certainties. 

A  man  had  need,  if  he  be  plentiful  in  some  kind  of 
expense,  to  be  as  saving  again  in  some  other.  As  if  he 
be  plentiful  in  diet,  to  be  saving  in  apparel;  if  he  be 
plentiful  in  the  hall,  to  be  saving  in  the  stable ;  and  the 
like.  For  he  that  is  plentiful  in  expenses  of  all  kinds 
will  hardly  be  preserved  from  decay.  In  clearing  of  a 
man's  estate,  he  may  as  well  hurt  himself  in  being  too 
sudden,  as  in  letting  it  run  on  too  long.  For  hasty  sell- 
ing is  commonly  as  disadvantageable  as  interest.  Be- 
sides, he  that  clears  at  once  will  relapse;  for  finding 
himself  out  of  straits,  he  will  revert  to  his  customs ;  but 
he  that  cleareth  by  degrees  induceth  a  habit  of  frugality, 
and  gaineth  as  well  upon  his  mind  as  upon  his  estate. 
Certainly,  who  hath  a  state  to  repair,  may  not  despise 
small  things;  and  commonly  it  is  less  dishonourable  to 
abridge  petty  charges,  than  to  stoop  to  petty  gettings. 
A  man  ought  warily  to  begin  charges  which  once  begun 
will  continue ;  but  in  matters  that  return  not  he  may  be 
more  magnificent. 


152  THE  TRANSACTION  OF  BUSINESS. 


Cunning 


\17E  take  Cunning  for  a  sinsister  or  crooked  wisdom. 
And  certainly  there  is  a  great  difference  between 
a  cunning  man  and  a  wise  man ;  not  only  in  point  of  hon- 
esty, but  in  point  of  ability.  There  be  those  that  can 
pack  the  cards,  and  yet  cannot  play  well;  so  there  are 
some  who  are  good  in  canvasses  and  factions,  that  are 
otherwise  weak  men.  Again,  it  is  one  thing  to  under- 
stand persons,  and  another  thing  to  understand  matters ; 
for  many  are  perfect  in  men's  humours,  that  are  not 
greatly  capable  of  the  real  part  of  business ;  which  is  the 
constitution  of  one  that  hath  studied  men  more  than 
books.  Such  men  are  fitter  for  practice  than  for  counsel ; 
and  they  are  good  but  in  their  own  alley :  turn  them  to 
new  men,  and  they  have  lost  their  aim ;  so  as  the  old  rule 
to  know  a  fool  from  a  wise  man,  'Put  both  among 
strangers  and  you  will  see/  doth  scarce  hold  for  them. 
And  because  these  cunning  men  are  like  haberdashers 
of  small  wares,  it  is  not  amiss  to  set  forth  their  shop. 

It  is  a  point  of  cunning,  to  wait  upon  him  with  whom 
you  speak,  with  your  eye;  as  the  Jesuits  give  it  in  pre- 
cept :  for  there  be  many  wise  men  that  have  secret  hearts 
and  transparent  countenances.  Yet  this  would  be  done 
with  a  demure  abasing  of  your  eye  sometimes,  as  the 
Jesuits  also  do  use. 

Another  is,  that  when  you  have  anything  to  obtain  of 
present  dispatch,  you  entertain  and  amuse  the  party 
with  whom  you  deal  with  some  other  discourse ;  that  he 


CUNNING.  153 

be  not  too  much  awake  to  make  objections.  I  knew  a 
counsellor  and  secretary,  that  never  came  to  Queen 
Elizabeth  of  England  with  bills  to  sign,  but  he  would 
always  first  put  her  into  some  discourse  of  estate,  that 
she  mought  the  less  mind  the  bills. 

The  like  surprise  may  be  made  by  moving  things  when 
the  party  is  in  haste,  and  cannot  stay  to  consider  ad- 
visedly of  that  is  moved. 

If  a  man  would  cross  a  business  that  he  doubts  some 
other  would  handsomely  and  effectually  move,  let  him 
pretend  to  wish  it  well,  and  move  it  himself  in  such 
sort  as  may  foil  it. 

The  breaking  off  in  the  midst  of  that  one  was  about  to 
say,  as  if  he  took  himself  up,  breeds  a  greater  appetite 
in  him  with  whom  you  confer  to  know  more. 

And  because  it  works  better  when  any  thing  seemeth 
to  be  gotten  from  you  by  question,  than  if  you  offer  it  of 
yourself,  you  may  lay  a  bait  for  a  question,  by  showing 
another  visage  and  countenance  than  you  are  wont;  to 
the  end  to  give  occasion  for  the  party  to  ask  what  the 
matter  is  of  the  change?  As  Nehemias  did;  'And  I  had 
not  before  that  time  been  sad  before  the  king. ' 

In  things  that  are  tender  and  unpleasing,  it  is  good  to 
break  the  ice  by  some  whose  words  are  of  less  weight, 
and  to  reserve  the  more  weighty  voice  to  come  in  as  by 
chance,  so  that  he  may  be  asked  the  question  upon  the 
other's  speech;  as  Narsissus  did,  in  relating  to  Claudius 
the  marriage  of  Messalina  and  Silius. 

In  things  that  a  man  would  not  be  seen  in  himself,  it 
is  a  point  of  cunning  to  borrow  the  name  of  the  world ; 
as   to   say,   'The   world   says/   or   'There   is   a   speech 
abroad. ' 
11 


154  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

I  knew  one  that,  when  he  wrote  a  letter,  he  would  put 
that  which  was  most  material  in  the  postscript,  as  if  it 
had  been  a  by-matter.  I  knew  another  that,  when  he 
came  to  have  speech,  he  would  pass  over  that  that  he 
intended  most ;  and  go  forth,  and  come  back  again,  and 
speak  of  it  as  of  a  thing  that  he  had  almost  forgot. 

Some  procure  themselves  to  be  surprised  at  such 
times  as  it  is  like  the  party  that  they  work  upon  will 
suddenly  come  upon  them ;  and  to  be  found  with  a  letter 
in  their  hand,  or  doing  somewhat  which  they  are  not 
accustomed;  to  the  end  they  may  be  apposed  of  those 
things  which  of  themselves  they  are  desirous  to  utter. 

It  is  a  point  of  cunning,  to  let  fall  those  words  in  a 
man's  own  name,  which  he  would  have  another  man 
learn  and  use,  and  thereupon  take  advantage.  I  knew 
two  that  were  competitors  for  the  secretary's  place  in 
Queen  Elizabeth's  time,  and  yet  kept  good  quarter 
between  themselves ;  and  would  confer  one  with  another 
upon  the  business ;  and  the  one  of  them  said,  that  to  be 
a  secretary  in  the  declination  of  a  monarchy  was  a  tick- 
lish thing,  and  that  he  did  not  affect  it;  the  other 
straight  caught  up  these  words,  and  discoursed  with 
divers  of  his  friends,  that  he  had  no  reason  to  desire  to 
be  secretary  in  the  *  declination  of  a  monarchy/  The 
first  man  took  hold  of  it  and  found  means  it  was  told  the 
Queen,  who  hearing  of  a  '  declination  of  a  monarchy/ 
took  it  so  ill  as  she  would  never  after  hear  of  the  other's 
suit. 

There  is  a  cunning,  which  we  in  England  call  'The 
turning  of  the  cat  in  the  pan ; '  which  is,  when  that  which 
a  man  says  to  another,  he  lays  it  as  if  another  had  said 
it  to  him.  And  to  say  truth,  it  is  not  easy,  when  such  a 
matter  passed  between  two,  to  make  it  appear  from 
which  of  them  it  first  moved  and  began. 


CUNNING.  155 

Some  have  in  readiness  so  many  tales  and  stories,  as 
there  is  nothing  they  would  insinuate,  but  they  can 
wrap  it  into  a  tale;  which  serveth  both  to  keep  them- 
selves more  in  guard,  and  to  make  others  carry  with  it 
more  pleasure. 

It  is  a  good  point  of  cunning,  for  a  man  to  shape  the 
answer  he  would  have  in  his  own  words  and  proposi- 
tions ;  for  it  makes  the  other  party  stick  the  less. 

It  is  strange  how  long  some  men  will  lie  in  wait  to 
speak  somewhat  they  desire  to  say;  and  how  far  about 
they  will  fetch;  and  how  many  other  matters  they  will 
beat  over,  to  come  near  it.  It  is  a  thing  of  great 
patience,  but  yet  of  much  use. 

A  sudden,  bold,  and  unexpected  question  doth  many 
times  surprise  a  man,  and  lay  him  open.  Like  to  him 
that,  having  changed  his  name  and  walking  in  Paul's, 
another  suddenly  came  behind  him  and  called  him  by 
his  true  name,  whereat  straightways  he  looked  back. 

But  these  small  wares  and  petty  points  of  cunning 
are  infinite;  and  it  were  a  good  deed  to  make  a  list  of 
them;  for  that  nothing  doth  more  hurt  in  a  state  than 
that  cunning  men  pass  for  wise. 

But  certainly  some  there  are  that  know  the  resorts  and 
falls  of  business,  that  cannot  sink  into  the  main  of  it; 
like  a  house  that  hath  convenient  stairs  and  entries,  but 
never  a  fair  room.  Therefore  you  shall  see  them  find 
out  pretty  looses  in  the  conclusion,  but  are  no  ways  able 
to  examine  or  debate  matters.  And  yet  commonly  they 
take  advantage  of  their  inability,  and  would  be  thought 
wits  of  directions.  Some  build  rather  upon  the  abusing 
of  others,  and  (as  we  now  say)  putting  tricks  upon 
them,  than  upon  soundness  of  their  own  proceedings. 


Get  Out,  or  Get  In  Line 


ELBERT    HUBBARD 


You  will  never  be  a  partner  unless  you 
know  the  business  of  your  department  far 
better  than  the  owners  possibly  can.  In- 
stead of  the  question,  'What  must  I  do  for 
my  employer?'  substitute  'What  can  I  do?' 
Faithful  and  conscientious  discharge  of  the 
duties  assigned  to  you  is  all  very  well,  but 
it  will  not  do  for  the  coming  partner.  There 
must  be  something  beyond  this.  The  rising 
man  must  do  something  exceptional,  and 
beyond  the  range  of  his  special  department. 

He  must  attract  attention. 

There  is  no  service  so  low  and  simple, 
neither  any  so  high,  in  which  the  man  of 
ability  and  willing  disposition  cannot  readily 
and  almost  daily  prove  himself  capable  of 
greater  trust  and  usefulness. — CARNEGIE. 


Get  Out,   or  Get  In  Line 


J  F  all  the  letters,  messages  and  speeches  of  Lincoln  were 
destroyed,  except  that  one  letter  to  Hooker,  we 
should  still  have  a  pretty  good  index  to  the  heart  of  the 
Rail-Splitter. 

In  this  letter  we  see  that  Lincoln  ruled  his  own  spirit; 
and  we  also  behold  the  fact  that  he  could  rule  others. 
The  letter  shows  frankness,  kindliness,  wit,  tact,  wise 
diplomacy  and  infinite  patience. 

Hooker  had  harshly  and  unjustly  criticised  Lincoln, 
his  Comander-in-Chief,  and  he  had  embarrassed  Burn- 
side,  his  ranking  officer.  But  Lincoln  waivers  all  this  in 
deference  to  the  virtues  that  he  believes  Hooker  pos- 
sesses, and  promotes  him  to  succeed  Burnside.  In  other 
words,  the  man  who  had  been  wronged  promotes  the  man 
who  had  wronged  him,  over  the  head  of  a  man  whom  the 
promotee  had  wronged  and  for  whom  the  promoter  had 
a  warm  personal  friendship. 

But  all  personal  considerations  were  sunk  in  view  of 
the  end  desired.  Yet  it  was  necessary  that  the  man  pro- 
moted should  know  the  truth,  and  Lincoln  told  it  to  him 
in  a  way  that  did  not  humiliate  nor  fire  to  foolish  anger ; 
but  which  certainly  prevented  the  attack  of  cerebral 
elephantiasis  to  which  Hooker  was  liable. 

From  the  Cosmopolitan  Magazine. 


160  THE   TRANSACTION   OP  BUSINESS. 

Perhaps  we  had  better  give  the  letter  entire,  and  so 
here  it  is : 

"EXECUTIVE  MANSION, 
"WASHINGTON,  January  26,  1863. 
"MAJOR-GENERAL  HOOKER: 

"General, — I  have  placed  you  at  the  head  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac.  Of  course  I  have  done  this  upon  what  appear 
to  me  to  be  sufficient  reasons,  and  yet  I  think  it  best  for  you 
to  know  that  there  are  some  things  in  regard  to  which  I  am 
not  quite  satisfied  with  you. 

"I  believe  you  to  be  a  brave  and  skilful  soldier,  which  of 
course  I  like. 

"I  also  believe  you  do  not  mix  politics  with  your  profession, 
in  which  you  are  right. 

"You  have  confidence  in  yourself,  which  is  a  valuable  if  not 
an  indispensable  quality. 

"You  are  ambitious,  which,  within  reasonable  bounds,  does 
good  rather  than  harm;  but  I  think  that  during  General  Burn- 
side's  command  of  the  army  you  have  taken  counsel  of  your 
ambition  and  thwarted  him  as  much  as  you  could,  in  which 
you  did  a  great  wrong  to  the  country  and  to  a  most  meritor- 
ious and  honorable  brother  officer. 

"I  have  heard,  in  such  a  way  as  to  believe  it,  of  your  re- 
cently saying  that  both  the  army  and  the  government  needed 
a  dictator.  Of  course  it  was  not  for  this,  but  in  spite  of  it, 
that  I  have  given  you  the  command.  Only  those  generals  who 
gain  success  can  set  up  dictators.  What  I  now  ask  of  you 
is  military  success,  and  I  will  risk  the  dictatorship.  The 
government  will  support  you  to  the  utmost  of  its  ability,  which 
is  neither  more  nor  less  than  it  has  done  and  will  do  for  all 
commanders.  I  much  fear  that  the  spirit  which  you  have 
aided  to  infuse  into  the  army,  of  criticising  their  commander 
and  withholding  confidence  from  him,  will  now  turn  upon 
you.  I  shall  assist  you  as  far  as  I  can  to  put  it  down.  Neither 
you,  nor  Napoleon,  if  he  were  alive  again,  could  get  any  good 
out  of  an  army  while  such  a  spirit  prevails  in  it.  And  now 
beware  of  rashness;  beware  of  rashness,  but  with  energy  and 
sleepless  vigilance  go  forward  and  give  us  victories. 

"Yours  very  truly,  "A.  LINCOLN." 


GET  OUT,  OR  GET  IN  LINE.  161 

One  point  in  this  letter  is  especially  worth  our  con- 
sideration, for  it  suggests  a  condition  that  springs  up 
like  deadly  night-shade  from  a  poisonous  soil.  I  refer 
to  the  habit  of  sneering,  carping,  grumbling  at  and  criti- 
cizing those  who  are  above  us. 

The  man  who  is  anybody  and  who  does  anything  is 
surely  going  to  be  criticized,  vilified  and  misunderstood. 
This  is  a  part  of  the  penalty  for  greatness,  and  every 
man  understands  it ;  and  understands,  too,  that  it  is  no 
proof  of  greatness.  The  final  proof  of  greatness  lies  in 
being  able  to  endure  contumely  without  resentment. 
Lincoln  did  not  resent  criticism ;  he  knew  that  every  life 
must  be  its  own  excuse  for  being,  but  look  how  he  calls 
Hooker's  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  dissension  Hooker 
has  sown  is  going  to  return  and  plague  him !  '  Neither 
you,  nor  Napoleon,  were  he  alive,  could  get  any  good  out 
of  an  army  while  such  a  spirit  prevails  in  it. '  Hooker 's 
fault  was  on  Hooker— others  suffer,  but  Hooker  suffers 
most  of  all. 

Not  long  ago  I  met  a  Yale  student  home  on  a  vacation. 
I  am  sure  he  did  not  represent  the  true  Yale  spirit,  for 
he  was  full  of  criticism  and  bitterness  toward  the  insti- 
tution. President  Hadley  came  in  for  his  share,  and  I 
was  supplied  items,  facts,  data,  with  times  and  places 
for  '  a  peach  of  a  roast. ' 

Very  soon  I  saw  the  trouble  was  not  with  Yale,  the 
trouble  was  with  the  young  man.  He  had  mentally 
dwelt  on  some  trivial  slights  until  he  had  got  so  out  of 
harmony  with  the  institution  that  he  had  lost  the  power 
to  derive  any  benefit  from  it.  Yale  is  not  a  perfect  insti- 
tution—a fact,  I  suppose,  that  President  Hadley  and 
most  Yale  men  are  quite  willing  to  admit ;  but  Yale  does 


162  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

supply  certain  advantages,  and  it  depends  upon  the  stu- 
dents whether  they  will  avail  themselves  of  these  advan- 
tages or  not. 

If  you  are  a  student  in  a  college,  seize  upon  the  good 
that  is  there.  You  get  good  by  giving  it.  You  gain  by 
giving — so  give  sympathy  and  cheerful  loyalty  to  the 
institution.  Be  proud  of  it.  Stand  by  your  teachers— 
they  are  doing  the  best  they  can.  If  the  place  is  faulty, 
make  it  a  better  place  by  an  example  of  cheerfully  doing 
your  work  every  day  the  best  you  can.  Mind  your  own 
business. 

If  the  concern  where  you  are  employed  is  all  wrong, 
and  the  Old  Man  a  curmudgeon,  it  may  be  well  for  you 
to  go  to  the  Old  Man  and  confidentially,  quietly  and 
kindly  tell  him  that  he  is  a  curmudgeon.  Explain  to 
him  that  his  policy  is  absurd  and  preposterous.  Then 
show  him  how  to  reform  his  ways,  and  you  might  offer 
to  take  charge  of  the  concern  and  cleanse  it  of  its  secret 
faults. 

Do  this,  or  if  for  any  reason  you  should  prefer  not, 
then  take  your  choice  of  these :  Get  out,  or  get  in  line. 
You  have  got  to  do  one  or  the  other— now  make  your 
choice. 

If  you  work  for  a  man,  in  heaven's  name  work  for  him ! 

If  he  pays  you  wages  that  supply  your  bread  and  but- 
ter, work  for  him — speak  well  of  him,  think  well  of  him, 
stand  by  him  and  stand  by  the  institution  he  represents. 

I  think  if  I  worked  for  a  man  I  would  work  for  him. 
I  would  not  work  for  him  a  part  of  the  time,  and  then 
the  rest  of  the  time  work  against  him.  I  would  give  an 
undivided  service  or  none. 


GET  OUT,  OR  GET  IN  LINE.  163 

If  put  to  the  pinch,  an  ounce  of  loyalty  is  worth  a 
pound  of  cleverness. 

If  you  must  vilify,  condemn  and  eternally  disparage, 
why,  resign  your  position,  and  when  you  are  outside, 
damn  to  your  heart 's  content.  But,  I  pray  you,  so  long 
as  you  are  a  part  of  the  institution,  do  not  condemn  it. 
Not  that  you  will  injure  the  institution— not  that— but 
when  you  disparage  the  concern  of  which  you  are  a  part, 
you  disparage  yourself. 

More  than  that,  you  are  loosening  the  tendrils  that 
hold  you  to  the  institution,  and  the  first  high  wind  that 
comes  along,  you  will  be  uprooted  and  blown  away  in 
the  blizzard's  track— and  probably  you  will  never  know 
why.  The  letter  only  says:  'Times  are  dull  and  we 
regret  that  there  is  not  enough  work/  et  cetera. 

Everywhere  you  will  find  those  out-of-a-job  fellows. 
Talk  with  them  and  you  will  usually  find  out  that  they 
are  full  of  railing,  bitterness  and  condemnation.  That 
was  the  trouble — through  a  spirit  of  fault-finding  they 
got  themselves  swung  around  so  they  blocked  the  chan- 
nel, and  had  to  be  dynamited.  They  were  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  concern,  and  no  longer  being  a  help  they 
had  to  be  removed.  Every  employer  is  constantly  look- 
ing for  people  who  can  HELP  him ;  naturally  he  is  on  the 
lookout  among  his  employees  for  those  who  do  not  help, 
and  everything  and  everybody  that  is  a  hindrance  has  to 
go.  This  is  the  law  of  trade— do  not  find  fault  with  it; 
it  is  founded  on  nature.  The  reward  is  only  for  the  man 
who  helps,  and  in  order  to  help  you  must  have  sympathy. 

You  cannot  help  the  Old  Man  so  long  as  you  are  ex- 
plaining in  undertone  and  whisper,  by  gesture  and  sug- 
gestion, by  thought  and  mental  attitude,  that  he  is  a 


164  THE   TRANSACTION   OF  BUSINESS. 

curmudgeon  and  his  system  dead  wrong.  You  are  not 
necessarily  menacing  him  by  stirring  up  discontent  and 
warming  envy  into  strife,  but  you  are  doing  this :  You 
are  getting  yourself  upon  a  well-greased  chute  that  will 
soon  give  you  a  quick  ride  down  and  out. 

When  you  say  to  the  other  employees  that  the  Old 
Man  is  a  curmudgeon,  you  reveal  the  fact  you  are  one ; 
and  when  you  tell  that  the  policy  of  the  institution  is 
'rotten,'  you  surely  show  that  yours  is. 

Hooker  got  his  promotion  even  in  spite  of  his  failings ; 
but  the  chances  are  that  your  employer  does  not  have 
the  love  that  Lincoln  had— the  love  that  suffereth  long 
and  is  kind.  But  even  Lincoln  could  not  protect  Hooker 
forever.  Hooker  failed  to  do  the  work,  and  Lincoln  had 
to  try  some  one  else.  So  there  came  a  time  when  Hooker 
was  superseded  by  a  silent  Man,  who  criticized  no  one, 
railed  at  nobody— not  even  the  enemy.  And  this  Silent 
Man,  who  ruled  his  own  spirit,  took  the  cities.  He 
minded  his  own  business,  and  did  the  work  that  no  man 
ever  can  do  unless  he  gives  absolute  loyalty,  perfect  con- 
fidence and  untiring  devotion. 

Let  us  mind  our  business,  and  work  for  self  by  work- 
ing for  the  good  of  all. 


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